The Updated and Expanded Tenth Anniversary Edition
Stephen Hawking
First off, to quote a great author, "Don't Panic"! I know most people hear the name Stephen Hawking and the subjects of physics and astronomy and promptly glaze over, or have flash backs to that one awful teacher we all had. The good news here is - wait for it - science and physics is fun, even if you don't completely understand every detail of every concept!
One of the things I found myself enjoying in this book is its honest descriptions of how the scientific process works. Hawking is not afraid to show himself, as well as others, discarding and reevaluating their theories and calculations based on new data that disproves, conflicts with, or shows problematic areas in their work. In addition Hawking has a gift for making science easy to visualize - from using a soap bubble to demonstrate how light reacts in multiple curvatures, tocom mon playing cards to demonstrate theories of particle spin, making these theories much easier to visualize and understand.
Although some of the areas Hawking expresses excitement about have not yet been explored, some have, such as the advances in gravitational wave science through the LIGO facility. Although science is constantly advancing, and some items in this book are either now proved, or we now have the technology to work with at finer levels, this is still an excellent read, and a good foundation for those who have an interest in science.
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