A Journey Through The Mind of Stephen Hawking and The Wonders of a Brief History of Time

The universe is finite but the talent we have on the earth is really infinite. A man who was not able to speak and walk has written a book that has become the record best seller of all time. Stephen William Hawking, PhD, (1942-2018) was an English theoretical physicist, cosmologist and author best known for his work exploring Hawking radiation and Penrose-Hawking theorems. He was Director of Research at the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology within the University of Cambridge. Serving as the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge between 1979 and 2009, Hawking was the recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, an Honorary Fellow at the Royal Society of Arts, a lifetime member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the United States.

He was the greatest physics theorist of all time after Einstein and Newton. Stephen Hawking has undoubtedly changed the perception of modern physics we look today. He has written a book named ‘A Brief History of Time’ that gained overnight success in the world of modern science in which he pondered on many interesting things. He left the researchers of modern physics at a stage where they can find something interesting.

ABOUT THE BOOK

A Brief History of Time (1988) is a book written by the scientist and mathematician Stephen Hawking. This book is about physics, the study of laws that predict how things work in the universe. In this book, Stephen Hawking talks about many theories in physics. Some of the things that he talks about are the history of physics, gravity, how light moves in the universe, space-time, elementary particles, black holes, the Big Bang, and time travel. A Brief History of Time stayed on the British Sunday Times best-seller list for a record-breaking 237 weeks.

BOOK REVIEW : A BRIEF HISTORY OF TIME

Motivation

I have been instructed to review the book titled “A Brief History of Time” authored by Prof. Stephen Hawking. I always feel inquisitive about the cosmology but at the same time find theoretical physics related to it a bit difficult to understand as we are believing what we’ve not seen. Reason for choosing this scientific book is the clear explanation of the fundamental concepts of the universe, without the use of intimidating equations. Indeed, only one equation appears in the entire book: E=mc2.

Introduction

A Brief History of Time (1988) It is an account of an eminent British Physicist Prof. Stephen W. Hawking’s years of groundbreaking research in theoretical physics into book form. The main idea of the author was to make the most important theories, discoveries and phenomenon from the world of physics accessible to everyone with a basic knowledge of math and physics. This book is about cosmology (the study of universe) and with the same physics principles help us answer the biggest questions we can ask about the origin, evolution and fate of the universe.

Build Up

It begins with an account of historical studies of astronomy by ancients such as Aristotle and Ptolemy who tried to explain complex topics and explored such profound questions as: How did the universe begin-and what made its start possible? Does time always flow forward? Is the universe unending-or are there boundaries? Are there other dimensions in space? What will happen when it all ends? history of physics, gravity, how light moves in the universe, space-time, elementary particles, time travel relativity and quantum mechanics, and phenomena such as the big bang and black holes, which many other scientists like Nicholas Copernicus, German Johannes Kepler, Italian Galileo Galilei and then Newton attempted to answer later. Hawking combinedly put all these theories and summed up a very layman language and expanded general interest in cosmology in an accessible terminology for common understanding for everyone and sold more than twenty million copies of the book along the way. A Brief History of Time stayed on the British Sunday Times best-seller list for a record-breaking 237 weeks.

Synopsis

In this book, the author takes us on a journey from the time when Aristotle (340 BC) and the world of that era believed that Earth was of round shape, it was the center of the universe and supported on the back of a giant tortoise to our contemporary age when we know better. It is a brief and enjoyable story of science, the painstaking efforts on the part of scientists and philosophers to explain the world as we see it or as they saw it, the mistakes they committed, and the profound truths that they unraveled which paved a way to the future theorists to refine those analysis and come to a common acceptable theory by all .

Author explains the nature of the stars, their sizes, their life and existence. The efforts have been made by the author with pictorial representations and diagrams that have helped readers to understand them better. From the old tradition of watching the night skies and forming stories and superstitions about them to Newton’s law of gravity and to Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity, we discover how it works and how we’ve come this far. He breaks the notions of absolutes, of how, Newton discovered, space is relative and then nearly 250 years later, Einstein shook the world by showing that time isn’t absolute either, failing the concept of ether tells us how everything in the world is altering this space time-fabric. And then comes a case of singularity which cannot be explained by classical theories. What happens inside black holes, and what happened during the Big Bang, author tried to explain all these inquisitive questions with the concept of singularity.

Then, he diverts the gaze of the readers from the stars to smaller things i.e., Quantum Mechanics, searching for answers on the microscopic level on how things are made, and what they are made of. Until attempts are made to unify the two major theories like The Quantum theory of electrodynamics, Maxwell’s wave equations which seems to govern everything small, and the general theory of relativity which dominates large things into a single unified ‘Quantum theory of gravity’ which tells how it all began and how it will all end, of the existence of God and why the things are the way they are.

Stephen Hawking, as he himself says, has tried to find the nature of God or an ultimate energy behind the creation of the universe, or later as he corrects, the mind of God in this grand design. He does not disappoint the meta-physicist who is appeased by the idea of divine intervention as a powerful energy behind the creation of the universe. In numerous places, he argues with himself over the universe being a work of God, and how did he go about doing it? ‘What did God do before he created the universe?

By the end of the book Hawking works to support a theory that he himself hypothesized which states there are three types of time- thermodynamic time, psychological time, and cosmological time. He discusses the arrow of time and how the direction of time's arrows which may enables the time travelling to past and future also would and do affect us and our reality. And finally, in the last chapter he discussed about time travel! Here Hawking discusses two types of time travel that may be possible: traveling faster than the speed of light or discovering/creating a wormhole in space that closes the gap between parts of the universe.

Central Idea of The Book

Hawking attempts to explain a range of subjects in cosmology, including the big bang, black holes and worn holes and light cones, to the non-specialist reader. His main goal is to give an overview of the subject, but he also attempts to explain some complex mathematics. In the 1996 edition of the book and subsequent editions, Hawking discusses the possibility of time travel and wormholes and explores the possibility of having a universe without a quantum singularity at the beginning of time.

Applicability in Defence Services

In today’s and upcoming world, a technological advanced and equipped military is the strength of the nation. Physics phenomenon are applicable and utilized everywhere in the defence for e.g. the utilization of quantum physics in developing gravity sensors. Gravity sensing will enable attacking forces to detect underground and undersea movements, which will be a boon to detecting submarine movements or the quantum gravimeters which can precisely map geological features from the gravitational force they induce, thereby enabling military units to navigate in areas where satellite signals are weak (or in ‘GPS-denied’ environments). All these scientific inventions are given birth by the physics. In India till now only two physicists- C.V.Raman and Abdus Salam have won noble prize in physics which clearly shows the level of the interests towards physics is there in Indians and the same reason is applicable for such a technologically advanced growth of USA. It is the high time that the government should start giving fellowships this field to Indians as well as to attract foreign researchers also.

My Reading Experience and Recommendations

The book is beautiful in a way that it is presented. In a very simple and lay man language for a common understanding of complicated things in a very simpler manner. There was a time when I thought that maybe Hawking’s was obsessed about Blackholes but after reading a lot about Black holes I came to know why. Black holes are also related to time travel, the most used and most favourite topic of writing for science fiction authors. It might all be an illusion after all, with us living in the imaginary while thinking that the real is imaginary, something like living inside a mirror and thinking that the real person is our mirror image. It might all lead to zero, everything coming out of nothing, and yet amounting to nothing. If you want a book to wonder, marvel, think and scratch your head at, A Brief History of Time is the one for you. The other thing about Hawking's book is that it's just one way of telling the story of the universe. If you’re curious about the universe we live in, go read this book. I feel like an entire world of amazing things to learned has just been opened up to me, and I can’t wait to jump in.

Takeaways

Here are the three things I’m personally taking away after reading this book:

• (a) Theories can never be proven so there’s always a scope of refinement.
• (b) Time is not fixed, due to the speed of light, it is always relative.
• (c) For those of us who are late all the time, maybe there's hope. The three reasons why time can likely only move forward.
• (i) Time only moves forward thermodynamically.
• (ii) Time only moves forward psychologically.
• (iii) Time only moves forward cosmologically.

Conclusion

This book is brilliant because even a man with no science background can read it and find it interesting. However, there are several contradictions in this book what I have found. We are believing in what we have not seen. There remains a plethora of fundamental “unknowns” for future physicists to conquer: dark energy, dark matter, quantum gravity, Grand Unification Theory. and many more. In the end, I would just like to say that this book is a must read and you should give it a go. This work is a masterpiece. All hail the hawk!