History of the universe: its birth, its life, and its possible future.

A Quick History of the Universe takes a whistlestop tour through - funnily enough - the history of the universe, from the Big Bang to right now. The narrative text and cartoons cover all you need to know about space, forces and physics.

Stephen Hawking’s phenomenal, multimillion-copy bestseller, A Brief History of Time, introduced the ideas of this brilliant theoretical physicist to readers all over the world. Now, in a major publishing event, Hawking returns with a lavishly illustrated sequel that unravels the mysteries of the major breakthroughs that have occurred in the years since the release of his acclaimed first book. The Universe in a Nutshell • Quantum mechanics • M-theory • General relativity • 11-dimensional supergravity • 10-dimensional membranes • Superstrings • P-branes • Black holes One of the most influential thinkers of our time, Stephen Hawking is an intellectual icon, known not only for the adventurousness of his ideas but for the clarity and wit with which he expresses them. In this new book Hawking takes us to the cutting edge of theoretical physics, where truth is often stranger than fiction, to explain in laymen’s terms the principles that control our universe. Like many in the community of theoretical physicists, Professor Hawking is seeking to uncover the grail of science — the elusive Theory of Everything that lies at the heart of the cosmos. In his accessible and often playful style, he guides us on his search to uncover the secrets of the universe — from supergravity to supersymmetry, from quantum theory to M-theory, from holography to duality. He takes us to the wild frontiers of science, where superstring theory and p-branes may hold the final clue to the puzzle. And he lets us behind the scenes of one of his most exciting intellectual adventures as 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.” With characteristic exuberance, Professor Hawking invites us to be fellow travelers on this extraordinary voyage through space-time. Copious four-color illustrations help clarify this journey into a surreal wonderland where particles, sheets, and strings move in eleven dimensions; where black holes evaporate and disappear, taking their secret with them; and where the original cosmic seed from which our own universe sprang was a tiny nut. The Universe in a Nutshell is essential reading for all of us who want to understand the universe in which we live. Like its companion volume, A Brief History of Time, it conveys the excitement felt within the scientific community as the secrets of the cosmos reveal themselves.

"Learn the alphabet with twenty-six fascinating facts about the universe!"--Back cover.

Here we track the history of the Universe and our quest to find our place within it. The story begins among the rough-hewn rocks of ancient megaliths such as Stonehenge, when they are positioned to catch the rising Sun. It continues when the Greek genius Aristarchus pictures the geometry of Earth, Moon, and Sun, revealing the huge empty spaces between them; when Edwin Hubble shows that the Universe is getting ever larger; and when Swiss astronomer Fritz Zwicky finds that most of the Universe is missing. Includes a removable fold-out concertina neatly housed in the back of the book. This fold-out provides a 12-page Timeline History of the Universe that embeds the story in historical context and shows Who Did What When at a glance.

One of the most stunning features of the night sky, and Earth's home, the Mily Way is fertile ground for exploring the mysteries of the universe. This book will provide an overview of how astronomers have attempted to uncover our Galaxy’s past, and how current models of its structure may account for some of the most recent observations. Indeed, the distribution of chemical elements in our Galaxy serves as a ‘fossil record’ of its evolutionary history and is a powerful tool for studying the formation and evolution, not only of the Milky Way, but also of other galaxies. In their journey through the history of our Galaxy the authors answer many fascinating and intriguing questions, such as: what can the Milky Way tell us about the Big Bang? What were the very first stars like? Are we able to find any of these first stars, still shining today, but born at a time when no metals had been formed and the gas and the Galaxy consisted of only hydrogen and helium? How did the main biogenic elements form and how are they distributed throughout the Galaxy? Are there regions of our Galaxy where Earth-like planets such as ours might more easily form? The text is addressed to the curious or interested reader and is intended to unveil to a general popular science audience some of the topics about the structure and evolution of our Galaxy which are now the subject of hot debate amongst professional astronomers around the world.