Reading and Reflection on a science related book - The Theory of Everything

 THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING: 

The Origin and Fate of the Universe

Name of the author: Stephen W Hawking

    Stephen Hawking is widely believed to be as one of the world’s greatest minds: A really brilliant theoretical physicist whose works helped to reconfigure models of the universe and to redefine what is in it. Stephen Hawking was born in 1942, exactly 300 years after the death of Galileo. In his early twenties he was diagnosed as having Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, a motor neuron disease. He made science clear and thrilling. As an amazing Physicist he discovered science theories.

          The Theory of Everything: The origin and Fate of the universe is an amazing science nonfiction genre book. It comprises of a series of seven lectures. This book presents the most complex theories about the black holes, expansion of universe, the origin of everything, the direction of time and big bang. In a nutshell it covers everything from big bang to black holes to string theory. It captures not the brilliance of Hawking mind but his characteristic wit as well. Of his research on black holes, which absorbed him for more than a decade, he says, “It might seem a bit like looking for a black cat in a coal cellar.” In this series of lectures, he tried to give an outline of what we think about the history of universe from the big bang to black holes. In the first lecture he briefly reviews the past ideas about the universe and how the present universe is evolved. He coined it as the history of the universe. In the second lectures, he explains how Newton’s and Einstein’s theory of gravity led to the conclusion that universe could not be static, it had to be either expanding or contracting. And explains the beginning of universe as the big bang. In third lecture he gave complete details of black holes. While the fourth lecture describes how quantum mechanics allow energy to leak out of black holes. Now the fifth lecture is the quantum mechanical explanation of big bang and origin of earth. Later the next lecture gave the explanation that why laws of Physics are time symmetric and final lecture includes the unified theory which includes quantum mechanics, gravity and all other interactions.

          As a reader I really liked the book. It is not a fiction, but a science non-fiction genre with lot more theoretical basis. The book is a boon for physics lovers. It is not so complex because it did not include any complicated mathematical equations. As far as I am concerned, he kept the language simple and easily understandable. I thought, the author mixes science with philosophy. It is a short read. He poses interesting questions about God. As a non-fiction, it is really interesting for all readers who are not science related. He simply explains the whole theory of everything around us. The theory about the origin of universe is a controversial subject and still there are so many theories about it. Among these, the big bang theory is widely accepted one. And hence he briefly explains the theory and scientific temper about it. As we all know, he really is a prophet who explains well about the black holes and its consequences as hawking radiations. As a human being who should be aware of the origin and fate of the universe we live. All in all, it is a really recommending book for all who really like to learn about the universe.

          Concluding it’s a wonderful book which comprise of seven lectures which describes the whole science behind the origin and fate of universe and all theories about the whole universe. Also, he portrayed it in a really interesting way with so much fun and philosophy.