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Book Review: The Universe in a Nutshell by Stephen Hawking

Stephen Hawking was cosmologist and a theoretical physicist who had many influential

works [ CITATION The21 \l 1033 ]. He specialized in the fields of general relativity and

quantum theory and wrote many books to help the common man to understand these areas of

study. “The Universe in a Nutshell” is among his most famous works.

The first chapter is “A Brief History of Relativity” which focuses on Einstein and his

discoveries- especially those that helped develop the “two fundamental theories of the twentieth

century: general relativity and the quantum theory” (Hawking 3). Hawking starts off the chapter

by discussing ether, which was then considered to be this substance which filled the universe

through which electromagnetic waves such as light and radio waves travelled, Hawking

discusses experiments that were done to prove the existence of this substance which lead to the

famous Michelson-Morley experiment. This experiment proved that ether did not exist. As a

result of this discussion of ether in the early twentieth century, Einstein started working on his

theory of special relativity, which not many people agreed with at the time because it implied

that everything is relative. Next Hawking discusses Einstein’s famous equation: E = mc2 and how

this equation ultimately led to the creation of nuclear weapons. According to Hawking, Einstein

was a reason why “the Manhattan Project” was started. Hawking discusses how Einstein came

up with theories regarding general relativity (the warping of space-time) and he also briefly

touches up on the big bang and black holes. What I really liked about the first chapter was how

Hawking not only discussed scientific discoveries by Einstein but also recounts some events that

help catch the reader’s attention. An example of this is in the beginning of the chapter when

hawking discusses the brick issue at the Jefferson Lab at Harvard University. Another example is
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at the end of the chapter when Hawking writes about some instances in Einstein’s life that are

not very related to science such as Einstein being offered presidency of a country.

The second chapter, “The Shape of Time” focuses on how the shape given to time can

“be reconciled with the quantum theory” (Hawking 29). Hawking starts the chapter by

contemplating what time is and its shape, and as a result, continuing discussion of general

relativity and space time. Then Hawking begins discussion of the expanding universe and how it

came to be (the big bang). Hawking also discusses alternate theories of the creation of the

universe such as with a singularity. Hawking also discusses how him and his colleague found

mathematical proof of the big bang using general relativity. By discussing all this, Hawking is

giving proof of the beginning of time. Later in the chapter, Hawking writes about the quantum

theory, electricity, magnetism, supersymmetry, the string theory, dualities and imaginary time.

The topic in this chapter that interested me the most was that of the beginning of time. Just the

idea that an infinite concept such as time can have a mathematical beginning and a mathematical

end seems so surreal, even though it has been proved. It means that time is finite and not infinite

as we imagine it to be and I think that that is one of the most interesting things that I have ever

read about- it’s still difficult to wrap my head round it (more difficult than the concept of time

having shape).

The third chapter of “The Universe in a Nutshell” is titled “The Universe in a Nutshell”.

In this chapter Stephen Hawking discusses the origin of the universe. Hawking starts by

discusses the vast size of the universe and arguing that the universe could not have been in a

constant state forever otherwise things would not be as we see them to be. Hawking then

discusses the creation of the universe and the state of the universe- how the galaxies are moving

far away from each other and the further away they are the faster they move away. This is the
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explanation for the expanding universe. Hawking then goes on to discuss why the laws of

physics hold when the universe is large. He also talks about why intelligent life is in three

dimensions, the multiple histories of the universe, how imaginary time affects boundary

conditions of the universe and the anthropic principle. This chapter was one of the most

interesting chapters in the whole book for me because it made me question so many things about

the universe such as: If the universe is ever expanding then it must expand into something, if so

then what is that something? What is beyond the universe? Can the universe ever run out of

space to expand? Other than this one idea that really interested me was Hawking’s reasoning

about why the sky is dark at night. According to him, the sky is dark at night because the

universe was not always in this state, if it had been in this state forever then they sky would have

been bright at night. This is probably one of the most intriguing ideas in this book.

The fourth chapter of the book is “Predicting the Future”. This chapter discusses whether

the future can be predicted or not. Hawking starts by introducing Schrödinger’s equation which

can be used to calculate wave function at any time, past to future. After discussing this, Hawking

attempts to explain the possible results of a star running out of hydrogen: formation of

singularities/black holes. The interesting thing about this is that Hawking theorized that if the sun

becomes a black hole without losing its mass, then the planets would still orbit it which I find a

bit odd. Wouldn’t the gravitational force of the black hole be enough to cause all the planets

around it to fall into it? Hawking also wrote that if a particle from a pair of particles were to fall

into the black hole, the other one would escape to infinity. Again, in this case Hawking does not

explain why both from the pair would not simply fall into the black hole.

The fifth chapter is “Protecting the Past”. In this chapter Stephen Hawking discusses

whether the concept of time travels is real/possible or not. Throughout this chapter, Hawking
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admits that time travel although is a possibility, is next to impossible. Even though Hawking

concluded that time travel is next to impossible, his theory about wormholes and how they could

theoretically make the bending of space and time possible interests me greatly. Wormholes

according to Hawking could only be produced by extreme warping of space-time and

theoretically a massive object could use them to time travel without going at very high speeds.

The last two chapters are “Our Future? Star Trek or Not?” and “Brane New World”

respectively. In chapter six, Hawking discusses the interesting topic of rapid biological and

technological evolution and how it affects the human race. And finally in the last chapter

Hawking contemplates whether everything around us, including us is just a hologram and

discusses his theories in depth and mathematically.

In conclusion, I think that the simple tone, as well as the interactive pictures, that Stephen

Hawking used throughout the book made it very easy to understand and thus made me more

interested in the book. I also liked how he explained many complex theories without using that

much mathematics. Furthermore, the topics that he discussed about in “The Universe in a

Nutshell” are very intriguing and sparked my curiosity. Because of this I went beyond reading

the book and did some research on the topics that I found most interesting. Hawking’s occasional

witty remarks kept me engrossed throughout the book. The topics in the book that I liked the

most were: the concept of beginning of time, expansion and state of the universe, time travel,

black holes, and lastly wormholes. The one thing that I had a problem with whilst reading this

book was that Hawking seemed to go back and forth a lot within a chapter and he seemed to

change the topic too many times, which made it hard to keep up sometimes. Generally, the book

was very enjoyable and I would recommend it to my peers.

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Works Cited

Encyclopaedia, The Editors of. Stephen Hawking. 10 March 2021. 16 April 2021.

<https://www.britannica.com/biography/Stephen-Hawking>.

Hawking, Stephen. The Universe in a Nutshell. New York: Bantam Books, 2001. Print.