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A Briefer History of Time |
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A Briefer History of Time |
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基本信息·出版社：Bantam Books
·页码：176 页
·出版日期：2005年09月
·ISBN：0553804367
·条形码：9780553804362
·装帧：精装
·正文语种：英语
内容简介 Stephen Hawking's worldwide bestseller, "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, and 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 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 non scientists everywhere in the ongoing search for the tantalizing secrets at the heart of time and space. Thirty-eight full-color illustrations enhance the text and make "A Briefer History of Time" an exhilarating addition in its own right to the literature of science.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. 作者简介 STEPHEN HAWKING is Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge; his other books for the general reader include the essay collection Black Holes and Baby Universes and The Universe in a Nutshell. Physicist LEONARD MLODINOW, his collaborator for this new edition, has taught at Cal Tech, written for Star Trek: The Next Generation, and is the author of Euclid's Window and Feynman's Rainbow and the co-author of the children's book series The Kids of Einstein Elementary.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. 编辑推荐 From Publishers Weekly Starred Review. 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.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Scientific American Hawking's A Brief History of Time, published in 1988, was a surprise best-seller but a tough read for most people who tackled it. Hawking received many requests for a version that would make his discussion of deep questions about the universe more accessible. This book does that. Hawking and Mlodinow, a physicist turned science writer, proceed by small and careful steps from the early history of astronomy to today's efforts to construct a grand unified theory of the universe.
Editors of Scientific American
From Booklist
Theoretical physicist Hawking became an international celebrity thanks to his cosmological primer Brief History of Time (1988), one of the twentieth century's biggest best-sellers. According to Hawking, one copy of Brief History has been sold for every 750 people on earth (move over, Scarlett O'Hara!). While Brief History amassed that sales record, however, its subject matter didn't stand still, and some kind of overhaul, Hawking and Mlodinow say, came to seem necessary. They chose to revise in the direction of lesser length, more illustration, and greater accessibility as they updated to incorporate developments in string theory, new indications that a unified theory of physics--one that comprehends gravity as well as the three other physical forces--is possible, and new observations made by the Hubble Space Telescope and the Cosmic Background Explorer satellite. Few will be sorry for their choice, for Briefer History may be the clearest introduction to physics ever, and not just because it eschews equations, though that helps. Its clarity arises from firmly adhering to the concept announced by the second chapter's title, "Our Evolving Picture of the Universe." The book is the developmental portrait--a biography, if you will--of the idea of a dynamic cosmos, which took long to catch on: even Einstein, whose relativity theories "broke" the idea as nothing before had done, clung to a cosmological constant (which, Hawking and Mlodinow show, yet has its uses) in the face of quantum mechanical indeterminacy. Like the best biographies, it's an utterly engrossing read. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Review
"Hawking and Mlodinow provide one of the most lucid discussions of this complex topic ever written for a general audience.... [They] maintain the same wry, lively tone that made A Brief History of Time such a delight."-Publishers Weekly, starred review
From the Hardcover edition. --This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.
Review
"Hawking and Mlodinow provide one of the most lucid discussions of this complex topic ever written for a general audience.... [They] maintain the same wry, lively tone that made A Brief History of Time such a delight."—Publishers Weekly, starred review
