The Grand Design
and over 900,000 other books are available for Amazon Kindle .
Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Trade In this Item for up to £0.25
Trade in The Grand Design for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £0.25, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Authors
Discover books, learn about writers, and more.
Product Description
Book Description
New answers to the ultimate questions of life from the world's most famous living scientist.
Product Description
When and how did the universe begin? Why are we here? Is the apparent 'grand design' of our universe evidence for a benevolent creator who set things in motion? Or does science offer another explanation? In The Grand Design, the most recent scientific thinking about the mysteries of the universe is presented in language marked by both brilliance and simplicity. Model dependent realism, the multiverse, the top-down theory of cosmology, and the unified M-theory - all are revealed here.
This is the first major work in nearly a decade by one of the world's greatest thinkers. A succinct, startling and lavishly illustrated guide to discoveries that are altering our understanding and threatening some of our most cherished belief systems, The Grand Design is a book that will inform - and provoke - like no other.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A good book, unless your expectations are unrealistic,
This review is from: The Grand Design: New Answers to the Ultimate Questions of Life (Hardcover)
There is a trend in modern writing that 'more is more'. What I like about this book is that it takes the view that 'less is more', there are no long passages of stuffing to push up the word count to make a big hefty volume that can shift at a big hefty price. Hawkins and Mlodinow say what they need to say to get their point of view across and no more. The writing is tight and difficult ideas are conveyed in an effecient way but keep it understandable to an audience of non-professional scientists.Most of all what I liked about this book is that Hawkins made his view on god clear, in previous books (I've read) he has fudged the issue with vague references to a god of an unknown theology. This straight down the line honesty is to be commended, people uncomfortable with books that clearly express atheism should not read science books. Science above all must be honest, if a scientist speaks of the origins of the universe they must be able to express their opinion on the ultimate question with the same freedom of opinion we'd expect in a discussion about 10 dimensional space. You do not have to agree with the writer about 10 dimensional space or god, but the scientific writer must be free to discuss it honestly; the days of excommunicating Galileo should be firmly in the past. If you expect the book not to be opinionated, or be understandable to an readership with no scientific/mathematical knowledge at all, or help you with your post-graduate studies in quantum physics don't buy this book (actually don't buy any books they'll all disappoint you). For all other people with an interest in the ideas of why we are here, this is one of many books well worth putting on your reading list.
75 of 82 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A good summary of our current cosmological understanding,
This review is from: The Grand Design: New Answers to the Ultimate Questions of Life (Hardcover)
Stephen Hawking's new book, "The Grand Design" (written together with Leonard Mlodinow), is his first popular science book for about ten years. It seems to have created quite a stir in the non-scientific press, although in reality the book is very much in line with our latest theories in cosmology. Science began with the ancient Greeks, and the book starts off with a summary of their ideas. After a gap of some 1,400 years, a scientific approach to the Universe was revived by men such as Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, Descartes and Newton. Hawking goes on to describe the history of scientific advances since then, and introduces ideas of what is meant by reality and what constitutes a scientific theory. He introduces us to the mysteries of quantum mechanics and relativity, and explains how our understanding of the Big Bang is growing as a result of our studies of the cosmic microwave background radiation.But the key part of the book comes when Hawking describes something called M-theory, the leading candidate for the "theory of everything" which it is hoped will unite the two (currently incompatible, but highly successful) theories of quantum mechanics and general relativity. Both M-theory and other strands of evidence increasingly point to the conclusion that our Universe is not, after all, the only universe. The implication of these latest theories is that there are billions - and probably an infinite number - of other universes, each with their own physical laws and physical constants. This is the theory of the Multiverse. At a stroke, the theory explains why there are features of our own Universe which make it suitable for life; this is simply because we could only ever have evolved in the tiny minority of universes with the right set of physical laws. All in all, a fascinating read. If you want to give a mind-blowing Christmas present to somebody, this is the one.
27 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Mixed content,
By CP "ConsiderPhlebas" (Ireland) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Grand Design: New Answers to the Ultimate Questions of Life (Hardcover)
"Philosophy is dead", the authors declare very early on, and then roundly prove over the next few chapters why they could have done with the services of a good philosopher. Hawking is known, of course, for his ground-breaking science, but not for his analysis of the history of knowledge or the social progress of our culture. Unfortunately, a substantial part of this book is dedicated to those topics, and makes for a short-sighted and naive read. Once the writing turns to actual science, its value greatly increases: the major elements of relativity and quantum mechanics are summed up simply and clearly, then form the basis for explanations of newer work such as M-Theory. Hawking has written better about his (and others') work, but if you're looking for the most up-to-date and/or easily read version, then this book is worth its very reasonable cover price. It's a short and superficial book, however, so if you're looking for anything in-depth you are likely to be disappointed.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews |
Listmania!
|
|
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
