The Universe in a Nutshell

By: Stephen Hawking

Narrated by: Simon Prebble

Length: 3 hrs and 27 mins

Publisher's summary

Stephen Hawking’s phenomenal, multimillion-copy bestseller, A Brief History of Time, introduced the ideas of this brilliant theoretical physicist to people all over the world. Now, in a major publishing event, Hawking returns with a sequel that unravels the mysteries of the major breakthroughs that have occurred in the years since the release of his acclaimed first book.

The Universe in a Nutshell

• Quantum mechanics

• M-theory

• General relativity

• 11-dimensional supergravity

• 10-dimensional membranes

• Superstrings

• P-branes

• Black holes

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. In this new book Hawking takes us to the cutting edge of theoretical physics, where truth is often stranger than fiction, to explain in laymen’s terms the principles that control our universe.

Like many in the community of theoretical physicists, Professor Hawking is seeking to uncover the grail of science—the elusive Theory of Everything that lies at the heart of the cosmos. In his accessible and often playful style, 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. He takes us to the wild frontiers of science, where superstring theory and p-branes may hold the final clue to the puzzle. And he lets us behind the scenes of one of his most exciting intellectual adventures as 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.”

With characteristic exuberance, Professor Hawking invites us to be fellow travelers on this extraordinary voyage through space-time

The Universe in a Nutshell is an essential book for all of us who want to understand the universe in which we live. Like its companion volume, A Brief History of Time, it conveys the excitement felt within the scientific community as the secrets of the cosmos reveal themselves.

©2001 Stephen Hawking (P)2001 Random House Inc., Random House Audio, a Division of Random House Inc.

Critic reviews

"Hawking clearly possesses a natural teacher's gifts...and an ability to illustrate highly complex propositions with analogies plucked from daily life." —The New York Times

"Clear, concise and accessible. And he leavens it further with occasional wry humor.”—St Louis Post-Dispatch

“Provocative and informed ... plenty of comprehensible analogies and no small amount of humor, often self-deprecating.... Best of all, the book is liberally sprinkled with well-conceived, gorgeously rendered and frequently whimsical illustrations.”—Time

Nutty Professor Hawking

I walk away from this book realizing three things. First, that Hawking, "the world's smartest man" (according to The Simpsons), has a limited if not naive understanding of the philosophy, history, and sociology of science. In spite of his lip service to scientific positivism, he seems very much to believe that the supposedly imminent Theory of Everything will describe how the universe actually works, instead of being just one way (out of many) to explain incomplete observations. Hawking believes in scientific progress. Second, I realize that the standard model of the universe, if indeed we could indentify just one, is utterly absurd. Hawking is supposedly describing the universe on the smallest and largest scale, but this is not the world in which we LIVE, i.e., make our own observations and ratiocinations. When it comes to the very large and the very small (and even the very fast), we rely on scientists to elucidate us, and what a tale they tell: relative time, 10-11 dimensions, real time travel. Why do we listen? Hawking's writing is sometimes quite enjoyable but rarely cogent per se. Do we need to believe? Third, I see that science is always a language of metaphors, with all their aptness and distortions. "Strings," "wormholes," and apparently even "dimension," are all just linguistic shorthands for concepts with which we have no experience to even justify such labelings. A fascinating book to be sure, not because it explains any secrets of the universe, but because we think it might.

Tough going, but well worth the listen

After completing this book, I was amazed that Hawking would claim in the introduction that it was meant to be "easier to understand" than "A brief history of time". It has been several years since I have read the latter book, but I wouldn't rate "The universe in a nutshell" as easier. It was tough going. It was, however, fascinating, and what I enjoyed most were some of Hawking's less inaccessible comments on the future of scientific progress and human existence in the later chapters. The narration was reasonably good. This was well worth the purchase.

Not for the commoner.

Complicated read. Must have an IQ greater then mine. Great read if you have a basic understanding of the subject matter.

Very good

This book was full of really great concepts and ideas that got me thinking and inspired. Although I was lost a couple times throughout the book, most of the time the ideas where very simply put using everyday metaphors anyone would understand.

The Universe For Dummies

Dr. Hawkins did it right this time (no pun intended) with this book. If your eyes glazed over in an attempt to follow along and wrap your head around the physics theories in his first book, your are going to love this one. As he explains in the book's introduction, in the first book the chapters (or ideas) built upon each successive chapter. If you didn't understand after chapter two, you could not hope to understand chapter 3,4,5, etc. With this book, he builds the foundation in chapters 1 & 2. So if chapter 3 fizzes your gray matter, you can skip it because the remaining chapters stand on their own.

If you are a space time junkie that is fascinated by space time and quantum mechanics you are in for a very special treat. This man's mind is as special as the theories he explains. This is a great book. Buy it.

Sorry, Stephen, I still don't get it

Maybe the printed version of this book has a lot of great diagrams that explain some of the really mind (and space?) bending concepts in this book, but unfortunately most of it was completely unfathomable to me in audiobook format. While I did pick up a few tidbits, I can't recommend this audiobook. If you're a Hawking/astrophysics fan, go for the printed version.

fantastic!

fantastic book on the origin of the universe and its future told with boundless intelligence and wit.

Bertrand Russell was Right.

The English mathematician/philospher Bertrand Russell once claimed that popular books on relativity become unintelligible just when they begin to discuss something of real substance. One cannot help feeling that this is once again the case with Stephen Hawking's audiobook. I bought this book and I have been moving the narrator "back in forth in time" with my replay button, listening and relistening to what Hawking writes. The naration is outstanding. However, the organization seems higgly-piggly. We are given tastes of general relativity, particle spins, string theory, multiple quantum histories, black holes, etc. But,there is never any pause to fully explicate what is going on. I for one would prefer listening to Professor Hawking tell us how he visualizes the electro-magnetic field, as well as how light propagates within it. What is the difference between an electron (which is intimately tied up with electricity) and a photon of light (which is apparently created by undulations in the electro-magnetic field)? I wish Audible would offer audiobooks by Paul Davies. Professor Davies is somewhat more experienced at explaining things to us students in the back of the class. Then again, perhaps that's the nature of books which give us the universe in a nutshell. The nut is too hard to crack.

Great book.

If you could sum up The Universe in a Nutshell in three words, what would they be?

Interesting concise funny

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

Hawking does a great job in summing up a bunch of physics questions and theories in this book. He also reveals that he has a sense of humor reminiscent of Douglas Adams of Hitchhikers Guide.

Have you listened to any of Simon Prebble’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

I am still perplexed by the chapter on the histories of the universe but the way he explained time travel and other theories was very straightforward and interesting.

Easy to understand, fun and dynamic.

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Of course!...for somebody like me who has no idea about quantum mechanics, the mysteries of time and space and has very little knowledge about science, this is a great book to start and study. I believe that the only requirement is a lot of curiosity about how our reality may look like from different angles and different sizes...

What did you like best about this story?

Stephen Hawking rocked this book by explaining everything in simple terms and keeping a casual type of humor that kept me laughing, wondering, and completely amazed all at the same time.