''Its is perhaps one of the oddities of serendipity that 8th January 1942 was both the 300th anniversary of one of history''''s greatest intellectual figures, the Italian scientist Galilieo Galilei, and the day Stephen William Hawking was born into a world torn apart by war and global strife.''
Ofcourse there were 2 hundred thousand other babies born on that same day as pointed by Hawking and as far as I am concerned I do not believe in calenders of 12 months or a 7 day week.
We all know Stephen Hawking for his Brief History of Time, perhaps we know further that he is a scientist always on a wheel chair suffering from some disease. This book will certainly answer all the questions of what he is, what he does, his disease, his theories /papers, cosmology etc. Just go and buy this book but if you still need more info read on ..
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The Questions of Existence ~ Did God have a say in creation of the Universe ?
Cosmology is the study of the universe as a whole - it''''s structure, origin and development.
>> Who are we? From where have we come or how did we evolve ? Going back a lot, a lot further & deeper
>> How was earth formed ? How did Sun form ?
>> Is there INTELLIGENT life anywhere else in our Universe, in our Galaxy atleast?
>> Is the universe infinite? Was it created and how ?
>> Is there any knowable existence beyond the known dimensions of the universe?
>> What are the laws that govern the universe - are they constant everwhere?
So many questions and so few answers, if any ...
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About the Book ~A Life in Science by Micheal White & John Gribbin~ Narration Style
This book backtracks the course of Hawking’s life and science, successfully combining biography and physics/ cosmology to tell the story of a scientist and a remarkable man. The chapters alternate between his personal life and the advent of Cosmology, tracing the basic laws of Physics from Newton, Galilieo, Einstein to Bohr, Penrose & Hawking himself. There is a regular use of timelines throughout the narration. The language is lucid and to the point though sometimes I felt a lot of pains are taken to prove a point or side with SH!
Stephen W Hawking - Life
Son of a Doctor, Stephen Hawking''''s(SH) childhood was very ordinary at St. Albans school, Hertfordshire - the initial chapter talks about his school life, his friends & exams in detail. Other chapters discuss his college, Cambridge, His girlfriend-wife Jane Wilde, his research and doctorate, ALS disease ...
>> The Dark chapter of his life <<
During his 1st year in Cambridge while pursuing his Phd, he was diagnoised as having a rare and incurable disease - ALS or motor neuron disease which affects the nerves of the spinal cord & the parts of the brain which produce voluntary motor functions. The cells gradually degenerate over a period of time & cause paralysis as muscles atrophy throughout the body. Brain is unaffected - the higher functions thought & memory are left untouched.
Doctors gave him 2 years; And here was a man who was at the threshold of his career, a Phd to follow and a girlfriend - life was looking good and now he awaited Death !! SH went into a prolonged depression with a lack of will to live, from which Jane Wilde would rescue him ..His speech kept deteoriating and so would his other muscles. Coming out of such a scenario knowing that your days are numbered requires loads of courage, will & determination.
After reading this book I respect him more for defying the medical fraternity across the world and coming up with flying colors across his career; fortunately for him his career was in theoretical physics which requires more of the brain. Marriage and fellowship followed soon - with a job at Cambridge University college & a house near by.
The novel then discusses his social life, his presentations/papers and his financial difficulties due to the hi-cost of nursing. Then there is a whole chapter on the financials of the Brief History of Time and the phenomenal success of the book which resolved all his financial problems.
The rising differences on God & philosophy, made Stephen-Jane grow apart - result being divorce. Meanwhile SH status as a celebrity post-Brief history .. kept on growing worldwide acquiring him a superstar status and he tried his hand everywhere including Hollywood. These and his re-marriage to his nurse form the last of the chapters. Credit goes largely to him for popularising Cosmology.
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The Universe
..::The Universe is finite. Universe is like a Black H ole in reverse!!
Universe is expanding - all the galaxies are receding away from us but it is not the galaxies which are expanding, its the space between them which is!! ::..
Isaac Newton laid down the basic 3 laws of physics and it was all ok till Einstein came. He showed that gravity bends space and time (he got Nobel for an altogether different project on the photoelectric affect of light but he is known for relativity and gravity). Newton made the Universe an ordered & logical place using law of gravity, inertia and action & reaction principles. This was true by and large for most of the objects around us. Ofcourse this makes the Universe, where everything is predetermined, unacceptable to Church & others !!
Einstein provided a modern view of Universe in his general & special theory of relativity leading to the now world famous equation E=mc(squared). Speed is relative we all know that ex. 2 people approaching a fast train travelling at a speed of 100km/ph. one person is cycling at a speed of 30km/ph and other is driving at a speed of 80km/ph. So for the cyclist the train is coming at 130km/ph and for the driver it is coming at 180km/ph. But not for light !! Light always travels at 300,000km/per second..even if you are moving at a speed of 10000km/per sec towards it. This revelation of Einstein stunned the world and opened a whole new world; suddenly astronomical distances could be measured. There are far more complex implications/paradoxes in this which we shall not discuss.
There was an origin to the universe approximately 15 billion years ago!
The book discusses all of the the above in the initial chapters and then moves on to Big Bang, background radiation in the Universe and Singularity (a single boundary for space & time in the past). Expanding, contracting or stationary Universe, Models of big bang and What before the Big Bang, Black H oles/ Quasars and more are discussed/ explained.
The trial and error and the scientific papers, the influence of other scientists and other discoveries which triggered off more models/scientific paper... To understand the above the book delves deeply into Quantum physics, towards the edge of space-time then to Quasars and explosions of black h oles and finally to baby universes.
Towards the end SH talks about a unified theory which combines quantum theory and relativity theory. He explains his research on time travel, event horizon and strings theory before talking about end of physics.
Read comments for some intresting observations on astronomy
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Let me know if the review was useful ..
By the way the complete pdf version of book is available at https://nap.edu/books/0309084105/html/
