The Universe in a Nutshell (Published by Bantam Books, Copyright 2001, Stephen Hawking, ISBN: 0-553-80202-X) follows Stephen Hawking's 1988 smash bestseller, A Brief History of Time, or more accurately, the repackaged version from 1996, The Illustrated Brief History of Time. In a similar fashion to the second version of his bestseller, Hawking lays out his exploration of the universe in a non-linear, highly illustrated manner.
Were the subject matter somewhat less dense, The Universe in a Nutshell is a beautiful enough book to qualify as a coffee table book, and may well be just that in some households.
Still, the illustrations are merely window dressing to a work that reads as beautifully as it looks.
Laying the Foundation
Hawking opens his book with an entire chapter on the grandmaster of physics, Einstein and his two best known contributions to science, the theories of special and general relativity, in a nutshell. Without at least a cursory knowledge and understanding of how these two similarly named but fundamentally different theories apply to the universe around us, the rest of the book would be incomprehensible.
The second chapter focuses on the work of other theoretical physicists, Hawking himself included. The reader is introduced to several concepts which ground modern physics and inform current work in the area, including that which is soon to restart at the recently opened Large Hadron Collider (At the time of publication the LCH was still under construction) in Europe. The uncertainty principle, string theory, branes and imaginary time are explained in relatively simple terms to allow the layman to explore the universe the way physicists like Hawking see it.
Looking at the Many Faces of the Universe
In the rest of the book, Hawking walks the reader through the often counter intuitive nature of the universe at the scale of the very large and the very small. Images of familiar things like trains and cannons are employed to illustrate principles that don't necessarily lend themselves to a written explanation.
Concepts like the inflationary model of the universe, multi-dimensional physics, dark matter, time travel and more all are examined and explained in Hawking's inimitable style.
Science Writing for Non-Scientists
Unlike other disciplines such as paleontology, evolutionary biology or astronomy, the study of physics requires a set of specialized terms, almost a language of its own, to explain concepts that have no analogy in normal conversation. Hawking does his best to explain such terms in a way that the non-scientist can grasp and retain, allowing the reader to feel confident when exploring the quantum scale or imagining multi-dimensional space. For the most part, he succeeds quite well, giving the reader a guided tour of the largely invisible workings of the universe around us.
Hawking's gentle wit, his love for the subject matter, the giants who came before him and the work they did in the field of physics which he himself continues to build upon, shine through on every page.
It is easy to imagine that future generations will dedicate entire chapters of their popular science books to Stephen Hawking and his contributions to science, in a nutshell.
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