ON THE ORIGIN OF TIME

Another admirable attempt to explain Stephen Hawking (1942-2018) and his work.

Like Einstein, Hawking was the world’s most famous scientist during his lifetime. Unlike Einstein, whose work on space, time, and energy has been successfully described for curious nonscientists, Hawking’s breakthroughs involved the complex origins of the universe or the tortuous physics of black holes. Hertog, a cosmologist, professor of theoretical physics, and one of Hawking’s closest collaborators for years, gamely takes up the challenge, emphasizing Hawking’s final work that began in the 1990s and remained uncompleted at the time of his death. More philosophical and less mathematical than his earlier achievements, it also seems more accessible—though not all readers will agree. As in most popular science books, Hertog begins with the history. This is traditionally the easy part, but those unfamiliar with college physics may struggle through the discussion of Hawking’s early discoveries. As the 21st century approached and Hawking’s contribution to the origin of the universe was largely accepted, he began to look more deeply into the consequences of some of his theories. He was not the first to observe that if fundamental laws emerging from the Big Bang (gravity, electromagnetism, nuclear forces) were only slightly different, life could not exist. Was this merely a lucky coincidence? Reexamining primordial conditions, he proposed that our life-friendly cosmos was not preordained but evolved as the hot Big Bang may have produced not one universe but an innumerable “multiverse,” of which a few—or perhaps only ours—possessed natural laws amenable to life. “Stephen’s final theory of the universe contains the kernel of a uniquely powerful reflection on what it can mean to be human in this biofriendly cosmos, as stewards of planet Earth,” writes Hertog. “For this reason alone it may ultimately prove to be his greatest scientific legacy.” Ultimately, the author produces a text that feels like Hawking with a taste of Darwin.

An occasionally difficult read that will appeal to cosmologists and curious, dedicated general readers.