Mind is a marvellous thing.
From the beginning of civilization, human has always tried to know the mystery,
miracles and destiny. His search is still going on. Is it going to end or is it
never ending process? What is the origin of universe? What is its future? Is
everything determined? There are these thousands of question which stirs the
mind and make us feel how ignorant we are, about this grand universe.
But Stephen
Hawking has made it an exception. His book “Black Holes and Baby Universes and
other essays” has streamlined these complex issue in such a simple narrative
format with a stimulating wit that even a non-scientific person can
understand. The book is collection of essays which he wrote over the period
1976 to 1992.
It contains
fourteen chapters, elucidated in autobiographical way. The first few
of the essays deal with his childhood, his studies in Oxford and Cambridge and
how he coped with his incurable disease precisely known as Motor Neuron
Disease. His lines are motivating and encouraging. In one of his essay, he
writes,” Before my condition was diagnosed, I had been very bored to
life. There had seemed to be anything worth doing. But shortly after I came out
of hospital, I dreamt that I was going to be executed. I suddenly realized that
there were lot of worthwhile things I could do if I were reprieved.”
There are other captivating moments like how he saw the boy, suffering
with leukaemia and realized that there were people worse off than
him. In the next chapters, he has dealt with public attitude towards science.
About the conventional studies of science in schools, he writes, “Science,
in schools, is often presented in dry and uninteresting manner. Children learnt
it by rote to pass the examination, and they don’t see its relevance to the
world around them.”
In further
chapters, he explains what a complete and unified theory is and if there is
such theory how we can model it. He says that modelling physical reality
comprises two parts. First we have to find the local laws that govern various
physical quantities and second we should have sets of boundary conditions that
tell us the state of some regions of the universe at a certain time and what
effects propagates into it subsequently from the rest of the universe.
He further
explains what was the greatest mistake made by Einstein (which Einstein
himself accepted) and how he realized it. A detailed discussion was
made on the origin of universe, starting with different school of thoughts and
then reaching to the modern concept of singularity that most of the scientists
accept. He gives us optimistic thought of finding the one of the complex question,” How
did the universe begin.” But why it bothers to exist, will be mystery.”
In the next
chapters he explains the quantum mechanics of black holes, black holes and baby
universe and rules out any possibility of space travel in near future due to
uncertainty principle .In his essay entitled “Is everything determined?” He
says,” yes, it is. But it might as well not be, because we can never
know what is determined. “
About the
future of universe, he lucidly explains the different possibility of universe
in future. Presenting a clear meaning of some complex jargon of
modern physics words like ‘chaos’, ‘singularity’, ‘critical density’, ’law of
inflation’ he simply proves his outstanding ability to simply complex
things with such an ease.
Read
this book, you will as enjoy as you enjoy your favourite science fiction movie.
You will never find such a simple scientific book, without any equation (except
E=m.c^2), on such a convoluted topic.
