7 - A Brief History of Time

Around two and a half years ago, I went to the cinema to watch The Theory of Everything, James Marsh's biopic detailing the life and career of Stephen Hawking. It left me inspired to learn more about the scientist's research into physics and cosmology, and I decided the place to start would be to read his hugely popular and successful book for the layman, A Brief History of Time. Fortunately my parents already had a copy, so I borrowed it and then proceeded not to read it. But now I felt it might be a good time to break up all the science fiction on my list with some science fact.

A Brief History of Time was published in 1988 and collates all of the existing theories surrounding the relationship between time and space and the connection of forces within the universe that had been developed up to that point. Hawking then discusses the possible directions this research could take, with the overarching theme of whether mankind will ever be able to comprehend the nature of the universe.

I suspect that, if such an answer is ever found, I will not be the one to do it. Hawking states in his introduction that he had been advised to include as few equations as possible; that for each one that appeared in print, the readership of his book would halve. The problem that results from this is that he must then describe a number of highly abstract concepts by way of roundabout explanation - and often I found that words were probably not the best way of going about it. The use of diagrams helps in some cases, but I actually found myself wishing that he had simply used an equation and then elaborated upon it to aid visualisation.

Too often, Hawking describes a concept using an analogy only to refer to it in passing later on under the assumption that the reader has absorbed and understood all that it entails. While this might be possible with more serious study of each idea, that wasn't the book's intended purpose and the result is that, towards the end, nearly every sentence becomes a dense fog of technical terminology that does more to create confusion than to clarify.

But I suspect a lot of this will relate more to me as an arts student than anyone with a more in-depth knowledge of maths and physics. While the ideas he describes can be dense and abstract at times, Hawking's writing style as a whole is largely the opposite - as you would expect from a scientist he is methodical and precise in his work. I found the chapter on elementary particles to be quite engaging, and in fairness he does stress that a lot of the theories discussed are, by definition, theoretical. I am not sure what advances have been made in cosmology since 1988 but at the time there seemed to be a general lack of concrete evidence for pretty much everything. Otherwise he does manage to slip the occasional joke in, the anecdotes about the lives of scientists of the past are fun, and the underlying philosophical discussion of the nature of our existence, the possibility of God as creator and which direction the human race will take next is one that any reader should ponder.

Almost 30 years on from this book's publication, I am not sure we are any closer to finding the Grand Unified Theory that Hawking suggests could provide all the answers - but if we do, it will be in no small part due to his work. Just not necessarily this book.

3/5

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