A Briefer History of Time

A narrative walkthrough of the book’s core ideas.

Stephen W. Hawking, Leonard Mlodinow

20 min read

42s intro

Brief summary

A Briefer History of Time charts humanity's quest to understand the cosmos, explaining how theories of gravity, space-time, and quantum mechanics developed and where they might lead.

Who it's for

This book is for anyone curious about the fundamental concepts of modern physics, including relativity, quantum mechanics, and the origins of the universe.

A Briefer History of Time

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Our Picture of the Universe

Humans have long sought to understand their place in a vast and often violent universe. During an astronomy lecture, Bertrand Russell was once told that the world was supported by a tower of turtles. While this idea seems incorrect today, the true nature of space is still difficult to imagine because it is so different from life on Earth. Mercury experiences extreme temperature swings, and stars are massive furnaces that reach millions of degrees.

The scale of the universe is equally difficult to grasp. Distances are measured in light-years, the distance light travels in one year. Even the closest star is so far away that it would take ten thousand years to reach it using current technology. By using mathematics and advanced telescopes, scientists now investigate the origin of the universe and the behavior of time. They seek to determine if the universe had a beginning and how it might end, turning complex mysteries into clear, scientific knowledge.

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About the authors

Stephen W. Hawking

Stephen W. Hawking was an English theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and author who served as director of research at the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology at the University of Cambridge. Working primarily with general relativity and quantum mechanics, he made groundbreaking contributions to the understanding of black holes and the origins of the universe. His work included the theoretical prediction that black holes emit radiation, now known as Hawking radiation, and his collaboration on gravitational singularity theorems which helped frame the Big Bang theory.

Leonard Mlodinow

Leonard Mlodinow is an American theoretical physicist and author known for his work on quantum theory and for making complex scientific topics accessible to a general audience. After a career in academia that included research at the Max Planck Institute and teaching at Caltech, he became a successful author of popular science books and a screenwriter for television series such as *Star Trek: The Next Generation*. Mlodinow has co-authored books with Stephen Hawking and has received accolades for his writing, including the PEN/E. O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award.