Published by Bantam; 10th anniversary edition.
Stephen Hawking'sA Brief History of Time has become an international publishing phenomenon. Translated into thirty languages, it has sold over ten million copies worldwide and lives on as a science book that continues to captivate and inspire new readers each year. When it was first published in 1988 the ideas discussed in it were at the cutting edge of what was then known about the universe. In the intervening twenty years there have been extraordinary advances in the technology of observing both the micro- and macro-cosmic world. Indeed, during that time cosmology and the theoretical sciences have entered a new golden age . Professor Hawking is one of the major scientists and thinkers to have contributed to this renaissance.
By now well-covered only-so-popularizable territory of special relativity, black holes, expanding universe, quantum mechanics, anthropic principle, string theory, and does a reasonable job of remaining humble while inquisitive about the parts that might have no answer.
Ein sehr aufschlussreiches Buch, das so geschrieben ist, dass auch Laien wie ich etwas verstehen können (natürlich nicht alles, aber das muss auch nicht sein). Hawking beschreibt die Grundlagen von Newton über Einstein und Heisenberg bis hin zu seinen eigenen Forschungen und gibt einen Ausblick in die zukünftigen Forschungsrichtungen und Ziele (wie die Suche nach einer vereinheitlichten Theorie) in dem Bereich. Ich habe das Buch mit Gewinn gelesen, wenngleich es heute nicht mehr aktuell ist. Einige Theorien wurden ad acta gelegt, andere konnten in der Zwischenzeit belegt werden (Graviationswellen, Schwarze Löcher...). Zwei Anmerkungen habe ich: Im ganzen Buch kommt nur eine einzige (!) Wissenschaftlerin vor. Das wäre mir vielleicht früher gar nicht aufgefallen, aber heute achte ich auf so etwas. Herr Hawking haut manchmal ganz schön auf die Kacke (bezüglich sich selbst), aber er darf das auch. Er ist ja tatsächlich einer der wichtigsten Wissenschaftler des letzen Jahrhunderts gewesen.
Got close and then stopped listening for a couple weeks. When I came back, it was incomprehensible to be because I had forgotten most of the essential foundation laid by the rest of the book :(
So... We are nothing more than a colony of ants living on a little rock, floating in an infinite and chaotic universe?
While reading this book I learned a lot of things I was ignoring. I am convinced that if more people had a good understanding of the topics in this book, our society would be different. I enjoyed reading A Brief History of Time, but I have to confess that I had a not so easy time going through some passages and concepts, even tough the book itself is very clear.
Beyond the cold landscape that Hawking depicts through the pages, there is a message about the nature of science. I appreciated how he states things explicitly, like when he states that there is no way of knowing for sure if a theory is correct. Hawking doesn't just spit facts about each topic, instead he reasons with the reader, …
So... We are nothing more than a colony of ants living on a little rock, floating in an infinite and chaotic universe?
While reading this book I learned a lot of things I was ignoring. I am convinced that if more people had a good understanding of the topics in this book, our society would be different. I enjoyed reading A Brief History of Time, but I have to confess that I had a not so easy time going through some passages and concepts, even tough the book itself is very clear.
Beyond the cold landscape that Hawking depicts through the pages, there is a message about the nature of science. I appreciated how he states things explicitly, like when he states that there is no way of knowing for sure if a theory is correct. Hawking doesn't just spit facts about each topic, instead he reasons with the reader, so that all the doubts are set forth.
I just finished listening to Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time. It was astonishing. It made me want to understand the universe in a way that no book has in the past. I actually feel like I have a grasp on what quantum physics is, when in the past I have always felt like it was a murky pool of unknowns. I can't recommend it enough, if there are any of you that didn't beat me to it. #physics #hawking #book #review #audiobook
