Beyond The Theoretical

Nobody has ever figured out precisely why Stephen Hawking's first popular book, A Brief History of Time, has been such a gigantic success, selling an astonishing 10 million copies since it was published in 1988. One possibility is that readers thought they were hearing from the greatest physicist since Einstein, and maybe the greatest of all time (Hawking himself declared that comparison "rubbish" in a TIME interview several years ago, and most of his colleagues agree with him). Another, more plausible reason is the public's fascination with a man who is utterly immobilized by the degenerative disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, yet who does important work in relativity and quantum physics anyway--mostly in his head.

But the explanation most frequently offered--that History was easy to read--is by far the most preposterous. Plenty of very smart people, even some physicists, found it tough to slog through, and Hawking, who is evidently more objective than some of his publicists, admits it was "not easy going."

The prospect of another difficult read might make readers wary of taking on the University of Cambridge physicist's latest work, The Universe in a Nutshell (Bantam; 216 pages; $35). That would be a loss. Hawking takes on plenty of intimidating topics in Nutshell, including space-time geometry, quantum mechanics and the ominously titled M-theory. But he does it in a much more accessible way this time, using plenty of comprehensible analogies and no small amount of humor, often self-deprecating. Example: "Newton occupied the Lucasian chair at Cambridge that I now hold, though it wasn't electrically operated in his time."

Hawking further leavens the serious stuff with lots of anecdotes about his adventures, including his appearance on Star Trek: The Next Generation and his recurring bets with other scientists about the outcomes of various theoretical disputes (including whether time travel will ever be possible). He also goes into topics not usually covered by physicists: the evolution of intelligence and the future of humankind, for example. Hawking, 59, may not be the world's leading authority on such matters, but his ideas are provocative and informed.

Best of all, the book is liberally sprinkled with well-conceived, gorgeously rendered and frequently whimsical illustrations by Philip Dunn that explain the thornier concepts better than words ever could. There are plenty of photos too, of everything from Einstein on a bicycle to Hawking's grandson. And every few pages, the author throws in an informative block of text--a miniprofile of an important physicist, a digression on the idea of linking our brains directly to computers, a minitutorial on taking the temperature of a black hole.

Add a few (surprisingly relevant) quotes from Shakespeare, and you've got a book that's both rigorous and comprehensible. Hard-core physics lovers will see it as a serious primer on most of the topics at the leading edge of modern physics and cosmology. But the rest of us can learn plenty about these seemingly daunting topics and have a lot of fun at the same time.