A Brief History of Time : From the Big Bang to Black Holes

In the ten years since its publication in 1988, Stephen Hawking's classic work has become a landmark volume in scientific writing, with more than nine million copies in forty languages sold worldwide. That edition was on the cutting edge of what was then known about the origins and nature of the universe. But the intervening years have seen extraordinary advances in the technology of observing both the micro- and the macrocosmic worlds. These observations have confirmed many of Professor Hawking's theoretical predictions in the first edition of his book, including the recent discoveries of the Cosmic Background Explorer satellite (COBE), which probed back in time to within 300,000 years of the universe's beginning and revealed wrinkles in the fabric of space-time that he had projected. Eager to bring to his original text the new knowledge revealed by these observations, as well as his own recent research, Professor Hawking has prepared a new introduction to the book, written an entirely new chapter on wormholes and time travel, and updated the chapters throughout. Stephen Hawking's ‘A 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. Acknowledgements Introduction by Carl Sagan Our Picture of the Universe Space and Time The Expanding Universe The Uncertainty Principle Elementary Particles and the Forces of Nature Black Holes Black Holes Ain't So Black The Origin and Fate of the Universe The Arrow of Time The Unification of Physics Conslusion Albert Einstein Galileo Galilei Isaac Newton Glossary Index Was There A Beginning Of Time? Could Time Run Backwards? Is The Universe Infinite Or Does It Have Boundaries? These Are Just Some Of The Questions Considered In An Internationally Acclaimed Masterpiece Which Begins By Reviewing The Great Theories Of The Cosmos From Newton To Einstein, Before Delving Into The Secrets Which Still Lie At The Heart Of Space And Time. ????Provides an introduction to today's scientific ideas about the cosmos and reviews past theories. Also covers black holes, quarks, antimatter, and other mysteries of physics Space and time - the unification of physics - Albert Einstein - Galileo Galilei - Isaac Newton - the fate of the universe; Quarks - radiation - stars_ A WELL-KNOWN SCIENTIST (some say it was Bertrand Russell) once gave a public lecture on astronomy.