My British reading list contains three science selections, and I decided to finally tackle one. Science interests me, but I find most texts in this area rather boring, so I wasn't looking forward to it. I was pleasantly surprised.
A Briefer History of Time is a condensed and significantly revised version of Hawking's A Brief History of Time (published ~30 years ago). The newer version is only slightly shorter, but updated to both appeal to a broader audience, and include major advances made in understanding in the past three decades. It covers a range of topics, to include relativity, quantum physics, wormholes, time travel, and string theory. It discusses each at an extremely high, non-technical level. I'd be lying if I said I understood everything- but I did learn a bit from this. It's a surprisingly fast read at ~150 pages, and an interesting "foundation" book if you're interested in these topics. One surprising (to me) conclusion is that we have so many "holes" in our current theories- there are so many observations made that don't quite agree with our models. There are lots of inexplicable things going on. Will we ever understand them? Will it matter if we do? I don't know- but it's fun to think about.
One final comment here: the universe is a mighty weird place, yet amazingly beautiful. The fact that life exists at all, or even inanimate things like the stars and planets, seems a miracle. It's good to think about this as we learn more about some of the "guts" of our universe.
Rating: B
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