The Grand Design

Stephen Hawking, Leonard Mlodinow

Random House Publishing Group, Sep 7, 2010 - Science - 208 pages

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

When and how did the universe begin? Why are we here? What is the nature of reality? Is the apparent “grand design” of our universe evidence of a benevolent creator who set things in motion—or does science offer another explanation? In this startling and lavishly illustrated book, Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow present the most recent scientific thinking about these and other abiding mysteries of the universe, in nontechnical language marked by brilliance and simplicity.

According to quantum theory, the cosmos does not have just a single existence or history. The authors explain that we ourselves are the product of quantum fluctuations in the early universe, and show how quantum theory predicts the “multiverse”—the idea that ours is just one of many universes that appeared spontaneously out of nothing, each with different laws of nature. They conclude with a riveting assessment of M-theory, an explanation of the laws governing our universe that is currently the only viable candidate for a “theory of everything”: the unified theory that Einstein was looking for, which, if confirmed, would represent the ultimate triumph of human reason.

What people are saying

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - MarkLacy - LibraryThing

Well-written, but annoyed me frequently. (1) attempts at humor, (2) arguing against the necessity of God, (3) arrogance in thinking their theory is the one the world's been waiting for, (4) and could reality really be as complicated and strange as theoretical physics says it is.

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - tjl - LibraryThing

This is a book about M-theory which is a possible "grand unified theory" for physics. It goes through various physics models over time leading up to the discussion of M-theory. Even for me, someone ...

About the author

Stephen Hawking was the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge for thirty years and the recipient of numerous awards and honors including the presidential Medal of Freedom. His books for the general reader include My Brief History, the classic A Brief History of Time, the essay collection Black Holes and Baby Universes, The Universe in a Nutshell, and, with Leonard Mlodinow, A Briefer History of Time and The Grand Design. Stephen Hawking died in 2018.
 
Leonard Mlodinow is a physicist at Caltech and the bestselling author of The Drunkard’s Walk: How Randomness Rules our Lives, Euclid’s Window: The Story of Geometry from Parallel Lines to Hyperspace, and Feynman’s Rainbow: A Search for Beauty in Physics and in Life. He also wrote for Star Trek: The Next Generation. He lives in South Pasadena, California.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Grand Design
• Authors: Stephen Hawking, Leonard Mlodinow
• Edition: illustrated, unabridged
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group, 2010
• ISBN: 0553907077, 9780553907070
• Length: 208 pages
• Subjects: Science / Physics / Astrophysics; Science / Space Science / Cosmology; Science / Space Science / General