A Brief History of Time 时间简史

　　Stephen Hawking, one of the most brilliant theoretical physicists in history, wrote the modern classic A Brief History of Time to help nonscientists understand the questions being asked by scientists today: Where did the universe come from? How and why did it begin? Will it come to an end, and if so, how? Hawking attempts to reveal these questions (and where we're looking for answers) using a minimum of technical jargon. Among the topics gracefully covered are gravity, black holes, the Big Bang, the nature of time, and physicists' search for a grand unifying theory. This is deep science; these concepts are so vast (or so tiny) as to cause vertigo while reading, and one can't help but marvel at Hawking's ability to synthesize this difficult subject for people not used to thinking about things like alternate dimensions. The journey is certainly worth taking, for, as Hawking says, the reward of understanding the universe may be a glimpse of "the mind of God."
　　--Therese Littleton

　　"A Brief History of Time", published in 1988, has been a landmark volume in scientific writing and in worldwide acclaim and popularity, with more than nine million copies sold. That edition was on the cutting edge of what was then known about the nature of the universe. Since its publication, however, there have been extraordinary advances in the technology of observing both the micro- and the macrocosmic world, confirming many of Professor Hawking's predictions. Eager to bring to his original text the new knowledge revealed by these observations, Hawking has written a new introduction, updated chapters throughout, and added an entirely new chapter on Wormholes and Time Travel.
　　"A Brief History of Time" has guided nonscientists everywhere to confront the supreme questions of the nature of time and the universe, taking them to distant galaxies, black holes, alternate dimensions — as close as man has ever ventured to the mind of God. This anniversary edition makes vividly clear why Professor Hawking's eloquent classic has transformed our view of the universe.

　　Stephen Hawking, who was born on the anniversary of Galileo's death in 1942, holds Isaac Newton's chair as Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge. Widely regarded as the most brilliant theoretical physicist since Einstein, he is also the author of Black Holes and Baby Universes, a collection of essays published in 1993, as well as numerous scientific papers and books.