''The Universe in a Nutshell'' is a 2001 book about
theoretical physics
Theoretical physics is a branch of physics that employs mathematical models and abstractions of physical objects and systems to rationalize, explain, and predict List of natural phenomena, natural phenomena. This is in contrast to experimental p ...
by
Stephen Hawking
Stephen William Hawking (8January 194214March 2018) was an English theoretical physics, theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and author who was director of research at the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology at the University of Cambridge. Between ...
. It is generally considered a sequel and was created to update the public concerning developments since the multi-million-copy bestseller ''
A Brief History of Time
''A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes'' is a book on cosmology by the physicist Stephen Hawking, first published in 1988.
Hawking writes in non-technical terms about the structure, origin, development and eventual fate of ...
'' was published in 1988.
Content
In it Hawking explains to a general audience various matters relating to the
Lucasian professor's work, such as
Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem and
P-branes (part of
superstring theory
Superstring theory is an attempt to explain all of the particles and fundamental forces of nature in one theory by modeling them as vibrations of tiny supersymmetric strings.
'Superstring theory' is a shorthand for supersymmetric string t ...
in
quantum mechanics
Quantum mechanics is the fundamental physical Scientific theory, theory that describes the behavior of matter and of light; its unusual characteristics typically occur at and below the scale of atoms. Reprinted, Addison-Wesley, 1989, It is ...
). He tells the history and principles of modern physics. He seeks to "combine Einstein's General Theory of Relativity and Richard Feynman's idea of multiple histories into one complete unified theory that will describe everything that happens in the universe."
''The Universe in a Nutshell''
at Hawking.org.uk
Awards
The Universe in a Nutshell is winner of the Aventis Prizes for Science Books 2002.
See also
* Roger Penrose
Sir Roger Penrose (born 8 August 1931) is an English mathematician, mathematical physicist, Philosophy of science, philosopher of science and Nobel Prize in Physics, Nobel Laureate in Physics. He is Emeritus Rouse Ball Professor of Mathematics i ...
* Kip Thorne
* Physical cosmology
Physical cosmology is a branch of cosmology concerned with the study of cosmological models. A cosmological model, or simply cosmology, provides a description of the largest-scale structures and dynamics of the universe and allows study of fu ...
* Positivism
Positivism is a philosophical school that holds that all genuine knowledge is either true by definition or positivemeaning '' a posteriori'' facts derived by reason and logic from sensory experience.John J. Macionis, Linda M. Gerber, ''Soci ...
* List of textbooks on classical and quantum mechanics
* List of books on general relativity
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Universe in a Nutshell, The
2001 non-fiction books
Popular physics books
Books by Stephen Hawking
Cosmology books
Bantam Spectra books