The Illustrated Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking

Wow, I can't believe I actually finished this one (i'm sure that Sweeney is delightfully surprised as well). The whole time I was reading this book I kept thinking of the scene from Billy Madison where billy is talking about The book the Tale of Two Cities and he says, "I can understand nine words in that book now." It was definitely a difficult read and a whole lot of it went over my head, that did not surprise me. I expected to be challenged but I hoped to learn something. That is where the surprise came, I actually feel like I learned something significant.

This book, for those who do not known, is a book about the theoretical physics that scientists believe make up our universe. Since the evidence for all current theories is still theoretical it is, by definition, currently not provable.

The book starts by giving a brief history of physics and the most pronounced physicists in history. The book covers such topics as black holes, light cones, the theories of time and space, the expansion of the universe (as it relates to such theories as the Big Bang and others), the uncertainty principle, elementary particles and most importantly the creation of the universe.

What did I take away from this book? I learned that the matters contained without mostly regarding the origin of the universe is very much up for debate. Physicists are tackling the issue from many different sides and several distinct theories exists and all of them have severe flaws. The ultimate goal is to attain a cover all theories or a universal theory but it is just as likely that if the universe it to be completely understood it would be done through a series of theories that work together. For all we know about the universe at this point we are the closest we have ever been to understanding it but likely as far as possible at the same time.

Mostly I learned that Stephen Hawking is a lot smarter than I had previously given him credit for. What I mean by this is I always knew that he was , extremely intelligent but in this book he made it possible for the lay person, such as myself, to grasp some very advanced concepts. I am by no means an expert nor would I even go so far as to say I am a beginner when it comes to these topics but I definitely know more than I would have without Hawking's excellently simplified explanations of these ideas. It is this ability to explain these topics so that even I can understand them that is Hawking's greatest asset.