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Stephen Hawking: His Life and Work [Hardcover]

Kitty Ferguson
3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
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Book Description

10 Nov 2011

Stephen Hawking is one of the most remarkable figures of our time - a Cambridge genius who has earned international celebrity as a brilliant theoretical physicist and become an inspiration and revelation to those who have witnessed his courageous triumph over disability. This is Hawking's life story by Kitty Ferguson, who has had special help from Hawking himself and his close associates and who has a gift for translating the language of theoretical physics for non-scientists.

Twenty years ago, Kitty Ferguson's Stephen Hawking: Quest for a Theory of Everything became a Sunday Times bestseller and took the world by storm. She now returns to the subject to transform that short book into a hugely expanded, carefully researched, up to the minute biography, giving a rich picture of Hawking's childhood, the heartrending beginning of his struggle with Motor Neurone Disease when he was a first-year graduate student, his ever-increasing international fame, and his long personal battle for survival in pursuit of a scientific understanding of the universe. Throughout she also summarizes and explains to the layman the cutting-edge science in which Hawking has been engaged.

Published with text illustrations and with photographs that cover Hawking's life from his infancy to the present, Stephen Hawking is written with the clarity and simplicity for which all Kitty Ferguson's books have been praised. The result is a captivating account of an extraordinary life and the work of a splendid mind.


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Product details

  • Hardcover: 416 pages
  • Publisher: Bantam Press (10 Nov 2011)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0593068637
  • ISBN-13: 978-0593068632
  • Product Dimensions: 16.1 x 3.6 x 24 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 383,039 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Review

Ferguson captures the very full life and work of one of the most vibrant minds of our time (Publishers Weekly )

Fascinating (Observer )

The reader is drawn on by some of the best scientific definitions, analogies, simple explanations and downright interesting writing I have ever seen (Evening Standard )

Ferguson deftly conveys an exciting sense of both Stephen Hawking himself and his pre-eminent role in modern-day theoretical physics... A fine introduction to Hawking's own A Brief History of Time (Booklist )

Fascinating... Ferguson's sympathetic and informed take on an individual who has enriched human knowledge against the odds, is an excellent summing up of [Hawking's] unique and creative contribution to both science and humanity (George Ellis Nature Magazine )

Book Description

A revealing new biography of Stephen Hawking by the long-time chronicler of his life and science.

Inside This Book (Learn More)
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews

3.3 out of 5 stars
3.3 out of 5 stars
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars A biography and a half 10 Jan 2012
By B&J
Format:Hardcover
What a fascinating read. I'm no science student and yet Ferguson's simple explanations of the most complex theories makes one feel like one might be able to understand what Hawking is talking about. This isn't the first Kitty Ferguson book I've read and I certainly hope it won't be the last as her voice helps illuminate people, theories and periods in time in such an accessible, interesting and at times humorous way. Highly recommend. (note I see a reviewer here only gave it two stars, hmmm.... See he also gave To Kill A Mocking Bird only two also. Go figure)
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3.0 out of 5 stars Ferguson, Kitty - Stephen Hawking 24 Jan 2013
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
I though i would like this book as Stephen Hawking is a rather interesting sort of chap but unfortuately i found it very difficult to get into
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0 of 1 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars Problematic 7 Jan 2013
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Twice near the end of the book,Ferguson mentions that she discussed with Hawking whether his mathematical constructions referred to a world that could be considered 'real' in some way.. .precisely the sticking point for Copernicus and his epicycles.!Ie Are these pictures of the mind actually 'real'?
It is awful to think that writers and thinkers in cosmology think that they are the first to ruminate on such things.Is there a 'Thing-in -Itself'behind the categories of thought?If there is, then everything said about it is still within categories of thought.
One would like to refer Ferguson and Hawking to Kant and Fichte.

However the fascnation of the mathematically mystical constructions and fantasies of modern cosmology should be seen alongside the 'Hitch -Hikers Guide'and 'Star-Trek/Star Wars'mindset.The dream of a totally detached position merely watching and calculating a computer-like world and cosmos as if uninvolved.Many desire this it seems.
Nietsche thougfht science was constructed on the monkish ascetic fear of emotional -bodily reality .The wish to avoid a fully engaged life.Therefore science has grown weak and anorexic
.
Well Hawking's life is a wonderful fascinating phenomenon,a kind of picture-drama of something in our culture.Ferguson obviously feels this somewhere but is blinded or deafened by the remorseless mythological endeavour of the 'cosmologist '.One would have liked much more critical involvement.The book ,as other biographies of this subject starts terribly well.The story is so gripping.But then a series of 'discoveries' and awards takes over.An oracle sanctuary has been created.Complete foolishness is prized as wisdom.
But the evident compassion of Ferguson for Hawking is certainly a redeeming feature,and this also says something to us about ourselves.
Apparently when first stricken,Hawking dreamt that he would live a kind of sacrificial life for others or else die very soon..Well among other things his life does prove that scientific medecine in its predictions is not the last word or infallible any more than the pope was in Galileo's day.Maybe we must thank Hawking for that more than anything.The Human Will may be able to act on the 'infallible cosmic mathematism' beloved of the cosmologist like a totally new factor.like a 'little "Big bang"' in fact !!!
A 'Bang of love'?
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