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

awesome, learned a lot

I just wanted to hear about some universe theory's and history. RELATIVELY great buy! In this string at least.

way too complicated

This was sold as something that would be interesting and conceptual but it goes very deep and gets very complicated

Understandable Physics

What made the experience of listening to The Universe in a Nutshell the most enjoyable?

For someone with a very limited background in Physics I found I could grasp and be highly entertained by the material. If you are interested at all in AstroPhysics this is a must read. I will be leveraging this title as my foundation and will be looking for other titles to expand on the subject.

This stuff is *hard*

I have always been amazed that Stephen Hawkings' books have been so popular, as his subject is so difficult. There is no easy way to get to concepts like Yang Mills fields, multidimensional space-time, and quantum theories of gravitation. Hawkings is a brilliant and informal guide, but there is no way around that fact that the concepts of 20th century physics are very difficult (let alone 21st century physics). In part because these concepts are so familiar to Hawkings himself, he does not do a very good job of connecting them with things that might be more familiar. Or maybe it is more accurate to say that he does his best, but the concepts remain very complex and remote.

In general, this is an engaging book, but I was hanging on by my fingernails trying to keep up.

Educational and yet fun.

I truly enjoyed this book. I love how as he speaks on a subject, Stephen throws in little tid-bits about his life (like where someone has sat in his chair at cambridge, or funny things about his daughter's birth).

I imagine the science and math would be hard to follow for people not previously "in" on some of the lingo and concepts, but he seems to break it down well enough though.

He repeats himself sometimes, I'm not sure if thats the reader making a mistake, or a typographical thing, but I noticed it more than once. Also, he reviews concepts he's already illustrated earlier, as if this book were written for students and under the assumtion only individual chapters will be read.

I love how he gives credit, even to scientists that differ in opinion from him. He breaks down to the almost stupid level some concepts to help you understand why they will work, or not work. I also love how he dives into the risky waters of time travel and religion as he talks, and explains. I'm sure many out there will have arguements with his logic on a thing or two, but who can argue with his courage to discuss the previously undiscussable (well, outside of sci-fi).

A great read, and it covers such a broad spectrum of space-science. I recommend it to anyone who craves to understand anything about the universe from black-holes to parallel dimensions.

I need more studies

Excellent presentation of extremely complex subject. Opens door to further studies and more Stephen Hawking's books.

Why are we here?

The author makes an attempt to explain the various universal laws governing things that happen. It's a valiant effort but I am not sure how accurate it is at times. Some of it is speculation and guesses. This would be an excellent book to read in conjunction with the Bible and books of that sort. The three basic laws of Newton seem to hold more water than some of the recent theories.

It flashed by in a blur

Wow, I really tried to understand everything Dr. Hawking was saying, but most of it was just a blur. I feel that I am fairly intelligent and I usually love watching documentaries on the Discovery Channel and PBS, but this book makes me feel stupid. I don't think that anyone without at least 2 or 3 college level classes in physics could truly claim to understand this material.
I have the utmost respect for Dr. Hawking and I appreciate the way he tried to dumb this down for the layman, but this material is just to complicated for the average listener. I would try to listen to it all again, but without advanced mathematics and science degrees, what would be the point? Maybe he should just start lecturing in binary.

Sparking New And Old Interests

I believe everyone should hear the words of the great Stephen Hawking, one of the most beautiful souls and minds of our time. I've been dipping my toes back into my own theories of the universe, and this could have been no better starting point to reignite my passion for science.

Bravo!

Lots of information

Some parts were difficult to keep up with but overall my brain feels rather stuffed and happy.