The Universe in a Nutshell

I just finished reading The Universe in a Nutshell, by Stephen Hawking, and I am quite pleased. This is the first Hawking book I’ve been able to read cover to cover, and not feel like a complete idiot. It’s also the first I’ve come across with such great illustrations. Which shows where my priorities lie.

I’m a big fan of the latest books on physics, and this book definitely ties a lot of theories together in a neat little bow. It doesn’t quite discover the elusive theory of everything, but it makes the brane-worlds play nice with relativity. The book also has a wonderfully eloquent ending that really makes you wonder without feeling too lost.

My only problem was the flow of text being interrupted by little factoids next to the illustrations. If you have a good memory, this shouldn’t bother you. As it’s a design problem, I can’t blame it on Stephen Hawking. Which means I’ll have to find something else to blame on him.

If you find yourself hopelessly attracted to the idea of life on a giant membrane, and are thinking about a first date, I would like to recommend these two books as well:

The Fabric of the Cosmos

Brian Greene is the latest rock star physicist to really speak to the common man about theories so beyond our grasp, there’s no way you could cover it in a Simpsons episode. After watching The Elegant Universe on PBS, I was compelled to buy this book and read it like I was eating candy.

There’s lots of great stuff about string theory, M-theory, and brane-worlds in this book. It gets a little deeper than the Universe in a Nutshell, but it remains comprehensible. There’s a bit of redundancy as it goes over some things that were already in his previous book, which is why I’d recommend getting the The Elegant Universe on DVD. Especially if you’re a visual learner like myself.

How The Universe Got It’s Spots

I picked this book out of my wife’s collection almost randomly and was completely suprised. It’s not a hardcore science book, as much of it reads like a journal entry with bits of science intertwined, but that gave it a certain charm the previous two books are lacking. You can’t completely remove science from your everyday activities, and Jana Levin managed to relate it to her somewhat melancholy life. For me, who is obviously not a scientist, this approach is appealing because you can easily feel what it’s like to be such a fiercely intelligent person.

Also, on the science end of this book, it’s a lot more focused. It deals specifically with the shape of the universe and what that might mean. Through it I was introduced to elements of geometry I hadn’t previously known about, and came to understand the concept of a finite universe, that much clearer. I highly recommend it… plus it’s cheap.

Every now and then I have to swoon over physics. I hope that’s ok.

Burn through books like a meth addict at a library fundraiser? (what does that even mean?) Here’s some more reading material to get you through the summer, courtesy of the Carnival of Bookworms.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 2nd, 2007 at 12:00 am and is filed under Comics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.