Product Description

One of the most influential thinkers of our time, Stephen Hawking is an intellectual icon, known not only for the adventurousness of his ideas but for the clarity and wit with which he expresses them. His bestseller "A Brief History of Time" introduced the fascinating world of theoretical physics to readers all over the world. Now, Hawking turns to the major breakthroughs that have occurred in the years since the release of his first book. He brings to us the cutting edge of theoretical physics, where truth is often stranger than fiction, and explains in layman's terms the principles that control our universe. Like many in the international scientific community, Professor Hawking is seeking to uncover the grail of science - the elusive "Theory of Everything" that lies at the heart of the cosmos. In "The Universe in a Nutshell", he guides us on his search to uncover the secrets of the universe - from supergravity to supersymmetry, from quantum theory to M-theory, from holography to duality. In this exciting intellectual adventure he seeks "to combine Einstein's General Theory of Relativity and Richard Feynman's idea of multiple histories into one complete unified theory that will describe everything that happens in the universe". He takes us to the wild frontiers of science where superstring theory and p-branes may hold the final clue to the puzzle.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #16329 in Books
• Published on: 2001-11-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 222 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
The Universe in a Nutshell attempts to address the relative difficulty of Hawking's first foray into popular science, A Brief History of Time. While this sold in its millions, few readers got past the first few chapters. Helpfully, this new work is full of beautifully prepared colour illustrations and decorations, and has a "tree-like" structure, so that readers can skip from chapter to chapter without losing the thread.

In 200 highly illustrated pages, Hawking is pushing the frontiers of popular physics beyond relativity and quantum theory, past superstring theory and imaginary time, into a dizzying new world of M-theory and branes. It's a colossal venture--one Hawking is uniquely qualified to undertake--but it is crammed into far too small a space. When you consider the other rather good tomes being written on the nature of consciousness these days, the decision to limit The Universe in a Nutshell to the dictates of publishing rather than to the natural parameters of the material is an unfortunate one.

Worse, Hawking tries to paper over the complexity of his field. He rushes over the very concepts he should be helping us understand, only to belabour simple ideas, often by means of flip Star Trek metaphors. Also unfortunately, the illustrations--by turns trivial and opaque--mirror the faults of the text. The author's name alone will guarantee sales, but the book we long for--the long, ruminative, poetic celebration of Hawking's world--seems as far away as ever. --Simon Ings

Review
A Brief History of Time has now sold an estimated nine million copies worldwide - something of a hard act for its author to follow. In what is being promoted as the 'sequel' to that book, Professor Hawking gives an account of his attempt to combine Einstein's Theory of Relativity with Richard Feynman's idea of multiple histories, in order to reach the grail of a Theory of Everything - or big TOE, as it's charmingly named. This is a book about superstrings and p-branes, holography and supergravity, about how the 'cosmic seed' from which our universe derived was as small as a nut. The publishers are not yet releasing much text, but enough to see that it will be a fascinating (if challenging) read. And one enhanced throughout with 200 striking full colour illustrations and jazzed-up diagrams.

It is 13 years since A Brief History of Time became an unexpected bestseller. It sold millions and was translated into 40 languages, while being described as a book people bought but did not read. This new book is only partly an update; each chapter stands alone to a great extent while reporting on some of the most active fields of research. Its stated aim is to present a snapshot of the picture of reality as we currently understand it; a picture that changes as new scientific method allows further investigation. Is this book more accessible than its predecessor? The answer is yes and no. Make no mistake, dealing with relativity and the shape of time, black holes, supersymmetry, string theory and a universe with 11 dimensions - it is certainly challenging. It demands you read it slowly and avoid distractions. And, yes, there is good and powerful explanation here. It is beautifully produced and illustrated (the illustrations fill it out - the text alone would run to barely 100 pages). There are digressions to give more detail about matters peripheral to the main text, for example about people like John Wheeler who coined the name 'black hole'. The text consists of good basic description of core concepts such as the expansion of the universe, and tantalising material on even more complex issues, the brevity of which will leave the enthusiast frustrated and wanting more, others bewildered. The book seems like the result of a publisher's meeting determined to make it more truly accessible and throwing in every device possible to make it so except lengthier explanation. There are more quips than before, again apparently included to lighten the load ('This microwave radiation is not much good for defrosting frozen pizza, but...'). Nevertheless, the book is worthwhile. Enthusiasts for the subject will want to know what this icon of science has to say. Others will find its descriptions mindboggling, which is as it should be, but also a beautiful and fascinating introduction to how the world works. If so then they will find that one effect of A Brief History of Time's success was to encourage a proliferation of good science books. There are longer, more detailed and ultimately more satisfying books about the universe for those keen to explore further. None may guarantee you understand completely - part of the fascination here is that no-one understands all this - but they will take you further and stagger your imagination as they do so. (Kirkus UK)

The Spectator
'The publishing sensation of the last decade'

Customer Reviews

Very good book, but a bit hard to understand
Before I read this book, I have finished A Briefer History of Time also by Stephen Hawking. Therefore, I have had a general idea of time and relativity already.

I found University in a Nutshell is much harder to understand comparing with the A Briefer History of Time. The knowledge introduced in the book is much deeper and I counldn't understand much of it. I have got a master degree in microelectronics, if I got problem to understand I think many other people will have the same problem.

Hawking is trying to introduce the knowledge using non-mathematical ways. It is well illustrated, however, I think it is a bit over illustrated. I found many of the illustrations are redundant such as Einstein's photos and some other diagram isn't really helpful for readers to understand the knowledge which is written by word.

Generally speaking, it is still a very good book. It covers quite a lot of knoledge points such as black hole and etc. And it is quite a fun to read.

Mostly understandable :)
I am not much of a science / physics person (as in I don't really understand these matters but do find them fascinating) but I am very interested in astronomy, so I am always happy to read something about the universe in language which does not employ too much maths or excessive equations, as I simply get lost otherwise. I found Mr Hawking's explanations very accessible, apart from the discussion about time and the whole argument as to whether it has always been there, and sadly even the beautiful illustrations didn't help...but I'd put that down as my own fault rather than the author's! All in all, very well-written book, most concepts will be understood by ordinary people without prior knowledge of maths/physics, I am grateful to Mr Hawking for making this difficult subject seem much less daunting!

Only for people with science knowledge
A lovely book, lavishly illustrated and covering a huge swathe of scientific ground. The only problem is that despite being written for non-scientists, it doesn't really explain very much and the lavish illustrations sometimes don't really describe what's going on either. If you have read similar popular science books then you'll find this an interesting recap of a large field, but if you haven't you'll probably just end up feeling lost and confused.