On the Origin of Time

Stephen Hawking's Final Theory

Thomas Hertog

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English

Random House
28 March 2023

Mathematics & Sciences; Popular science; Cosmology & the universe; Astrophysics

Stephen Hawking's closest collaborator offers the intellectual superstar's final thoughts on the cosmos.

Perhaps the biggest question Stephen Hawking tried to answer in his extraordinary life was how the universe could have created conditions so perfectly hospitable to life. Pondering this mystery led Hawking back to the origins of the universe, but his early work ran into a crisis when the maths predicted many big bangs producing a multiverse - countless different universes, most of which were far too bizarre to harbour life.

Holed up in the theoretical physics department at Cambridge, Stephen Hawking and his friend and collaborator Thomas Hertog worked shoulder to shoulder for twenty years on a new quantum theory of the cosmos. As their discoveries took them deeper into the big bang, they were startled to find a deeper level of evolution in which the physical laws themselves transform and simplify until particles, forces, and even time itself fades away. This led them to a revolutionary idea- the laws of physics are not set in stone but are born and co-evolve as the universe they govern takes shape.

On the Origin of Time takes the reader on a quest to understand questions bigger than our universe, peering into the extreme quantum physics of black holes and drawing on the latest developments in string theory. As Hawking's final days drew near, the two collaborators published a final theory proposing their radical new Darwinian perspective on the origins of our universe. Their theory profoundly transforms the way we think about our place in the order of the cosmos and may ultimately prove Hawking's biggest legacy.

By: Thomas Hertog
Imprint: Random House
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 153mm, Spine: 26mm
Weight: 444g
ISBN: 9781911709091
ISBN 10: 1911709097
Pages: 304
Publication Date: 28 March 2023
Audience: General/trade , College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , ELT Advanced , Primary
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Thomas Hertog is an internationally renowned cosmologist and was for many years a close collaborator of Stephen Hawking. He is head of the Gravitational Wave Center at the University of Leuven, leading Belgium's participation in the European Space Agency's first mission devoted to gravitational waves. He has lectured in more than 25 countries and in 2015 was awarded the Prize of the Flemish Science Foundation for his research.

Reviews for On the Origin of Time: Stephen Hawking's Final Theory

"Like his mentor and colleague Stephen Hawking, Thomas Hertog has never shied away from being ambitious in theorizing about the universe. This sweeping book provides an accessible overview of both what we know about cosmology, and some audacious ideas for moving into the unknown. It is an introduction to Hawking's final theory, but also a glimpse into even grander theories yet to come. -- Professor Sean Carroll, author of The Biggest Ideas in the Universe Hawking and Hertog, with their ""top-down cosmology"", are pushing for nothing less than a new philosophy of physics... The concepts and arguments presented here are truly mind-stretching... The Origin of Time is immensely rewarding. -- Lewis Dartnell * The Times * A fascinating insight into one of humankind's deepest quests, by one of its deepest minds. -- Dr Christophe Galfard, author of The Universe in your Hand, and former student of Stephen Hawking Hertog's book is a fascinating tour of cosmology, the science of the Universe's origins * Nature * Stephen Hawking's final theory is lucidly explained in this splendidly accessible book. Author Thomas Hertog, one of Hawking's closest collaborators, gives us a vivid insight into Hawking as both a brilliant physicist and an astonishingly determined human being. -- Dr Graham Farmelo, author of The Strangest Man"