Book Review: The Grand Design by Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow

I chose this book because I have read (minimally in high school) Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History in Time and am very intrigued in physics and the way the universe works. I came across this when I searched for other books written by Mr. Hawking, and was told by reviewers that this book had much less mathematics and was more suited for beginners wanting to learn more about quantum physics and the M-theory. I found this book to be incredibly interesting, though it contained too much information for me to understand without having to reread certain chapters multiple times.  

   The Grand Design by Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow

The Grand Design, written by Stephen Hawking, one of the most accomplished theoretical physicists and author of the bestseller A Brief History in Time, and Leonard Mlodinow, a Caltech physicist and screenwriter, is the latest installment of Hawking’s infamous attempt to explain the (recent) progress of cosmology and fundamental physics- without the mathematics -to a wide audience. Several sub-topics include alternative histories, Feyman’s formulation of quantum mechanics, and the widely excepted M-theory. Stephen Hawking explains in detail the progression of scientific knowledge (from the ancient Greeks to modern cosmology) and also attempts to give an in-depth answer to the "Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything" through the following questions:

“Why is there something rather than nothing?

Why do we exist?

Why this particular set of laws and not some other?” (p10)

         To answer these questions, authors Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow turn to physics- including several of its fundamental and quantum theorems- and philosophy. In attempting to answer the first two questions, Hawking presents the claim that:

• "Because there is law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing." (p180)

Some critics such as Luke Meuhlhauser of CSA attacked the claim saying, "...Hawking argues that the universe will create itself...[but] does not even argue [why]...Moreover, this (quantum vacuum energy) is known to exist after the 'beginning' of the universe..." It seems, however, many of these critics simply skimmed through the chapters because later on Hawking explained that:

• "...gravity shapes space and time [so] it allows space-time to be locally stable but globally unstable. On the scale of the entire universe, the positive energy of the matter can be balanced by the negative gravitational energy, and so there is no restriction on the creation of whole universes. Because there is a law like gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing….Spontaneous creation is the reason why there is something rather than nothing…” (p180)

In essence, Hawking answers the above stated questions by saying that things occur spontaneously; there is (yet) no logical reason, it just does.

The main topic of this book is the M-theory. According Hawking and Mlodinow, physicists have, for the past century, tried to articulate a theory that fully explains the universe and its origin by encompassing both quantum mechanics, which explains physical behaviors at atomic and subatomic levels, with special relativity, which deals with things at a much larger scale. The closest scientists have come is with string theory, or more specifically, M-theory. M-theory is the compilation of three super-string and two heterotic string theories that scientists thought were unrelated. Mlodinow and Hawking, through tracing the logic of quantum mechanics, general relativity and string theory, show readers that a variety of existing universes and multiple histories is not just possible but arguably natural:

• "...the universe doesn't have just a single history, but every possible history, each with its own probability; and our observations of its current state affect its past and determine the different histories of the universe..." (p83)

When I first came across this quote, I was confused about what it meant. 'Does it mean we are affecting the past by studying it in the present? Is it possible that we exist in a different universe?' These are all thoughts that came to mind. After I read on, however, Hawking explained that though we can assume there are universes other than ours, we do not know anything about them; whether the laws of nature apply, whether other universes hold life like us, whether they contain elements that ours does. Though it is only a possibility, it is nonetheless a fascinating point.

The Grand Design had several other very compelling ideas that I came across for the first time. For example, Hawking and Mlodinow argue:

• "...the realization that time behaves like space...removes the age-old objection to the universe having a beginning, but also means that the beginning of the universe was governed by the laws of science and doesn't need to be set in motion by some God..." (p135)

This quote gives justification to Hawking's claim that universes create themselves from nothing.

The next excerpt, more humorous than compelling, shows Hawking rewording the previous quote while taking yet another jab at the idea of God:

• "...not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the universe going..." (p180)

Though I had learned this in a lecture from my physics class in high school, this next quote used a simple example that helped explain why other galaxies seem to be moving away from us:

• “…distant galaxies recede from us as if the cosmos were all on the surface of a giant balloon…” (p126)

This book allows non-physicists to step into the world of science. The Grand Design is a simply written, detailed book that thoroughly explains the world and advancements made possible by science. Although it is more geared towards those with at least a little knowledge of science, just about anybody can pick this book up and learn from it (like me!). I will, however, warn those who hold religious beliefs that Hawking tends to bash the idea of God whenever possible. That said, whether you are an Atheist, Christian, or Muslim, if you want to further your knowledge in physics and learn more about quantum physics and the M-theory, this book is a must read.