Title: Black Holes and Baby Universes and Other Essays

Author: Stephen Hawking

Genre: Non-fiction

Rating: 

Written by one of the most admirable theoretical physicists, Stephen Hawking, Black Holes and Baby Universes and Other Essays is a compilation of personal and scientific essays. Taken together, these essays showcase his great achievements, but also his battle with ALS. Unlike Hawking’s earlier bestseller, A Brief History in Time, which is primarily focused on current theories in science, Black Holes and baby Universes and other Essays is a mix of speeches, essays and paradoxes.

 At the age of twenty-one during his first year of graduate school at Cambridge, Hawking was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis disease (or ALS). This led him to experience a rapid deterioration of function until the point where he could no longer walk. While dealing with his permanent illness, Hawking finished school, married, and began to develop innovative theories of his own, such as black hole emission (otherwise known as Hawking Radiation). Though these essays vary in substance, a prominent theme of perseverance unites the book. It is incredible that a man who is faced with such life threatening difficulties can persevere and be smarter than all of us. Black Holes and Baby Universes and Other Essays isn’t the most science loaded of Hawking’s books, but it is very inspiring.

Reviewer: _quantum_03

Age: 14