3 of 3 members found this review helpful.
“The Grand Design aims at explaining physics from the early time (classic physics) over the emergence of Quantum Theory up until now where the M-Theory dominates current research in physics. Hawking and Mlodinow explain that difficult journey without numbers and calculations but in understandable words. Thus, sometimes it seems inevitable to get into details and repeat difficult parts.
Newton founded the mathematics of the real world by writing down formulas that describe the gravitational force. From then on mankind has been looking for a unified model that describe our universe and can even predict future events. A startling statement is that everything doesn't have a single history but all possible histories. The slit experiment shows that one particle travels all possible paths through all slits. The book explains that even time has a beginning (big bang) and it is out of question to ask what came before because we also don't ask what on earth is further south than the south pole.
What about the role of God in science? As Einstein put it, God does not play dice. How come, we are now able to see such a perfect universe where a slight manipulation of universal constants would have our universe collapse into itself? It is because all universes are bubbles in a boiling pot of water. Some will make it into steam others will collapse before. Since we are, we can observe. Science is a way to explain our world without the existence of a deity that decides the undetermined (no matter if there is such an entity or not).
The Grand Design is extremely thought-provoking and gives you a head-start in every lively discussion about quantum mechanics and the M-Theory at a cocktail party.”
Marcel wrote this review Sunday, January 2, 2011.
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