Stephen Hawking - A Briefer History of Time [AudioBook]

A Briefer History of Time



By: Stephen Hawking & Leonard Mlodinow



Narrator: Erik Davies



Length: 4 hours and 21 min



Type: Unabridged Audio



Format: MP3, 64Kbps, 22KHz, Stereo, CBR



Ripper credits: autoslump



Publisher's Summary:



Stephen Hawking's worldwide best seller, A Brief History of Time, has

been a landmark volume in scientific writing. Its author's engaging

voice is one reason, and the compelling subjects he addresses is

another: the nature of space and time, the role of God in creation, the

history and future of the universe. But it is also true that in the

years since its publication, readers have repeatedly told Professor

Hawking of their great difficulty in understanding some of the book's

most important concepts.



This is the origin of and the reason for A Briefer History of Time: its

author's wish to make its content more accessible to readers, as well as

to bring it up-to-date with the latest scientific observations and

findings.



Although this book is literally somewhat "briefer", it actually expands

on the great subjects of the original. Purely technical concepts, such

as the mathematics of chaotic boundary conditions, are gone. Conversely,

subjects of wide interest that were difficult to follow because they

were interspersed throughout the book have now been given entire

chapters of their own, including relativity, curved space, and quantum

theory.



This reorganization has allowed the authors to expand areas of special

interest and recent progress, from the latest developments in string

theory to exciting developments in the search for a complete unified

theory of all the forces of physics. Like prior editions of the book,

but even more so, A Briefer History of Time will guide nonscientists

everywhere in the ongoing search for the tantalizing secrets at the

heart of time and space.



Description:



In the 17 years since the publication of A Brief History of Time, Dr.

Hawking's bestselling exposition of physics, new data from particle

physics and observational astronomy have shed light on efforts to find a

Grand Unified Theory of Everything that Hawking and Mlodinow use to

enhance and update their answers to basic questions about the universe:

where it's going and how it began. Discussed at length are the

mysterious dark matter and dark energy-both of which can only be

observed by their gravitational effects and are believed to make up 90

percent of the universe. Another area of research that has exploded in

the past 20 years is string theory. Hawking and Mlodinow provide one of

the most lucid discussions of this complex topic ever written for a

general audience. Readers will come away with an excellent understanding

of the apparent contradictions and conundrums at the forefront of

contemporary physics. Recognizing that much of their audience will also

be science fiction buffs, they include a chapter on the possibility of

time travel. "Don't bet on it," the authors advise. Throughout these

discussions, the authors maintain the same wry, lively tone that made

the original Brief History such a delight. They close with a discussion

of where physics ends and philosophy begins, "Why does the universe

exist at all?" They cannot provide the answer, but they do provide an

immense amount of food for thought. Highly recommended.