First published 2022
Stephen Hawking spent decades wrestling with a fundamental puzzle: how did the universe create conditions so perfectly suited for life? His investigation into the big bang led to troubling mathematics that predicted countless universes, most too strange to support living beings. Working alongside Thomas Hertog in Cambridge's theoretical physics department, Hawking embarked on a twenty-year collaboration to develop fresh quantum theories about cosmic origins. Their research revealed that physical laws themselves evolve and transform, emerging alongside the universe rather than existing as fixed principles. As they probed deeper into extreme quantum physics, examining black holes and the big bang through string theory, they discovered that particles, forces, and even time itself fade away at the deepest levels. Their final theory presents a Darwinian view of cosmic evolution, where the laws governing reality co-evolve with the universe they shape. Hertog reveals how this work transforms our understanding of existence itself.
Genres: science, science-fiction, biography-memoir, astronomy, physics, academic
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: academic-collaboration, scientific-discovery
Setting: Cambridge
Period: 20th-century, 21st-century
304 pages · Hardcover · Bantam Press