Hawking, Stephen W. 1942–

(S.W. Hawking, Stephen William Hawking)

PERSONAL: Born January 8, 1942, in Oxford, England; son of Frank (a research biologist) and E. Isobel (a secretary) Hawking; married Jane Wilde (a linguist), 1965, divorced, 1990; children: Robert, Lucy, Timothy. Education: Oxford University, B.A., 1962; Cambridge University, Ph.D., 1966.

ADDRESSES: Office—Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, Cambridge University, Silver St., Cambridge CB3 9EW, England.

CAREER: Theoretical physicist. Cambridge University, Cambridge, England, research fellow at Gonville and Caius College, 1965–69, member of Institute of Theoretical Astronomy, 1968–72, research assistant at Institute of Astronomy, 1972–73, research assistant in department of applied mathematics and theoretical physics, 1973–75, reader in gravitational physics, 1977–79, Lucasian Professor of Mathematics, 1979–. Fair-child Distinguished Scholar at California Institute of Technology, 1974–75.

MEMBER: Royal Society of London (fellow), Pontifical Academy of Sciences, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, American Philosophical Society, Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (honorary member).

AWARDS, HONORS: Eddington Medal, Royal Astronomical Society, 1975; Pius IX Gold Medal, Pontifical Academy of Sciences, 1975; Dannie Heinemann Prize for mathematical physics, American Physical Society and American Institute of Physics, 1976; William Hopkins Prize, Cambridge Philosophical Society, 1976; Maxwell Medal, Institute of Physics, 1976; Hughes Medal, Royal Society of London, 1976; honorary fellow of University College, Oxford, 1977; Albert Einstein Award, Lewis and Rosa Strauss Memorial Fund, 1978; Albert Einstein Medal, Albert Einstein Society (Bern, Switzerland), 1979; Franklin Medal, Franklin Institute, 1981; Commander of the British Empire, 1982; honorary fellow of Trinity Hall, Cambridge, 1984; Royal Astronomical Society Gold Medal, 1985; Paul Dirac Medal and Prize, Institute of Physics, 1987; Wolf Foundation Prize for physics, 1988; named a Companion of Honour on the Queen's Birthday Honours List, 1989; Britannica Award, 1989. Honorary degrees from various universities, including Oxford, 1978; Chicago, 1981; Leicester, Notre Dame, and Princeton, 1982; Newcastle and Leeds, 1987; and Tufts, Yale, and Cambridge, 1989.

WRITINGS:

A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes, introduction by Carl Sagan, Bantam Books (New York, NY), 1988, updated and expanded tenth anniversary edition, 1998, published as The Illustrated A Brief History of Time, 1996.

Black Holes and Baby Universes and Other Essays, Bantam Books (New York, NY), 1993.

The Universe in a Nutshell, Bantam (New York, NY), 2001.

(With Kip S. Thorne, Igor Novikov, Timothy Ferris, and Alan Lightman) The Future of Spacetime, Norton (New York, NY), 2002.

On the Shoulders of Giants: The Great Works of Physics and Astronomy, Running Press (Philadelphia, PA), 2002.

The Theory of Everything: The Origin and Fate of the Universe, New Millennium Press (Beverly Hills, CA), 2002.

Also author and editor of many articles for scientific journals. A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes has been translated into over thirty languages.

ACADEMIC WRITINGS; UNDER NAME S.W. HAWKING

(With G.F.R. Ellis) The Large Scale Structure of Space-Time, Cambridge University Press (Cambridge, England), 1973.

(Editor, with Werner Israel) General Relativity: An Einstein Centenary Survey, Cambridge University Press (Cambridge, England), 1979.

Is the End in Sight for Theoretical Physics? An Inaugural Lecture, Cambridge University Press (Cambridge, England), 1980.

(Editor, with M. Rocek) Superspace and Supergravity: Proceedings of the Nuffield Workshop, Cambridge, June 16-July 12, 1980, Cambridge University Press (Cambridge, England), 1981.

(Editor, with G.W. Gibbons and S.T.C. Siklos) The Very Early Universe: Proceedings of the Nuffield Workshop, Cambridge, 21 June to 9 July 1982, Cambridge University Press (Cambridge, England), 1983.

(Editor, with G.W. Gibbons and P.K. Townsend) Super-symmetry and Its Applications: Superstrings, Anomalies, and Supergravity: Proceedings of a Workshop Supported by the Ralph Smith and Nuffield Foundations, Cambridge, 23 June to 14 July 1985, Cambridge University Press (Cambridge, England), 1986.

(Editor, with Werner Israel) Three Hundred Years of Gravitation, Cambridge University Press (Cambridge, England), 1987.

(Editor, with G.W. Gibbons and T. Vachaspati) The Formation and Evolution of Cosmic Strings; Proceedings of a Workshop supported by the SERC and held in Cambridge, 3-7 July, 1989, Cambridge University Press (Cambridge, England), 1990.

The Nature of Space and Time, Princeton University Press (Cambridge, England), 1996.

ADAPTATIONS: Errol Morris directed a film version of A Brief History of Time for Anglia Television, 1991; Black Holes and Baby Universes and Other Essays, read by Simon Prebble, was adapted for audio cassette, Bantam, 1993; A Brief History of Time was adapted for audio cassette as part of the collection Great Science Writers of the Decade, Dove Audio (Beverly Hills, CA), 1995.

SIDELIGHTS: "Where did the universe come from, and where is it going? Did the universe have a beginning, and if so, what happened before then? What is the nature of time? Will it ever come to an end?" These are the questions that absorb physicist Stephen W. Hawking, questions posed in his best-selling book, A Brief History of Time. Queries such as these drive the scientist towards his goal of helping to create a "Theory of Everything" (known to physicists as "TOE," or the "Grand Unification Theory," or "GUT"). Hawking believes that such an all-encompassing explanation may be worked out within the lifetime of many of his readers.

Hawking made it to University College, Oxford, when he was seventeen years old. He wanted to study mathematics and physics, but his father wanted him to go into biology (the senior Hawking felt that teaching would be the only opportunity in his son's future if he studied math). So Hawking compromised, taking chemistry in addition to physics. In Black Holes and Baby Universes and Other Essays, Hawking noted that, though he is now a professor of mathematics, he had no "formal instruction in mathematics since I left St. Al-bans school…. I have had to pick up what mathematics I know as I went along." The problem with biology, Hawking felt, was that it was not an exact enough science, like physics or math. Besides, he wrote in Black Holes and Baby Universes, "it also had a rather low status at school. The brightest boys did mathematics and physics; the less bright did biology."

Hawking estimates he did about one thousand hours of work during his three years at Oxford, "an average of an hour a day," he told Gene Stone in Stephen Hawk-ing's a Brief History of Time: A Reader's Companion. "I'm not proud of this lack of work, I'm just describing my attitude at the time, which I shared with most of my fellow students: an attitude of complete boredom and feeling that nothing was worth making an effort for." He didn't have many friends his first year or so; many of his classmates were older, having done national service before college. By his third year, though, Hawking was experiencing his happiest time at Oxford, discussing ideas and partying with friends, and rowing for the boat club.

When it came time to choose an academic specialty, Hawking was sure it would be physics, but his interests within physics lay in cosmology and elementary particles—the very large and the very small. He finally decided on cosmology, since that field was governed by Einstein's "General Theory of Relativity" (there was no comparable theory in elementary particles). Eventually, Hawking would pull these interests together again with his renowned theory about black holes.

Along with choosing his specialty came the sticky business of where to pursue that specialty. At Oxford, the program of study was set up so that the only examination was at the end of a student's three years of study. Hawking did not do well on his test, scoring on the borderline between a first and second class degree. This put him in the unenviable position of having to undergo an interview with the examiners so that they could decide which he should get. At one point in the interview, Hawking said in Black Holes and Baby Universes, "they asked my about my future plans. I replied that I wanted to do research. If they gave me a first, I would go to Cambridge. If I only got a second, I would stay in Oxford. They gave me a first."

Having earned his bachelor's degree from Oxford, Hawking went on to Cambridge to study for his doctorate. He took a break, however, to visit Iran with a friend. His mother recalled for Stone that while Hawking was there, a severe earthquake struck between Tehran and Tabriz. At the time, Hawking was riding a bus to Tabriz. Apparently, the ride was so bumpy that neither he nor his friend noticed the earthquake, and no one told them it had occurred. Hawking's family waited anxiously for three weeks to hear from him. "He had been ill well before" the trip, his mother recalled, but "when he finally came home he looked very much worse for wear."

During his last year at Oxford, Hawking remembered in Black Holes and Baby Universes, "I seemed to be getting clumsier, and I fell over once or twice for no apparent reason." While he was at Cambridge, his mother noticed his problems, and the family ended up at a specialist who put Hawking in the hospital for tests. He remembered, "They took a muscle sample from my arm, stuck electrodes into me, injected some radio-opaque fluid into my spine, and watched it going up and down with X-rays as they tilted the bed." The diagnosis was amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) or motor neuron disease, known in the United States as Lou Gehrig's disease (named after the New York Yankee player who died of the illness in 1941).

Hawking was given two and one-half years to live. He gradually lost the use of his body as it deteriorated. The long-term prognosis was grim: eventually, only his lungs and heart would work. His brain, however, would be totally unaffected to the end. At first, Hawking was extremely depressed. He spent a lot of time listening to classical music by Richard Wagner, a longtime family favorite, and sitting in his room. "But," he asserted in Black Holes and Baby Universes, "reports in magazine articles that I drank heavily are an exaggeration." He also remembers having troubling dreams at that time. A couple of them made a tremendous impact on his outlook: "I dreamt that I was going to be executed. I suddenly realized that there were a lot of worthwhile things I could do if I were reprieved. Another dream that I had several times was that I would sacrifice my life to save others."

Just before being diagnosed, Hawking met Jane Wilde at a New Year's party. The two fell in love and got engaged. The scientist told Kitty Ferguson, in Stephen Hawking: Quest for a Theory of Everything, that "the engagement changed my life. It gave me something to live for. It made me determined to live. Without the help that Jane has given I would not have been able to carry on, nor would I have had the will to do so."

After an engagement during which they commuted between London and Cambridge, the couple was married in July, 1965, after Hawking won his fellowship to work at Gonville and Caius College at Cambridge. They eventually found a house conveniently located near the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, where Hawking would work. He lived by himself during the week, and Jane commuted on weekends to Cambridge until she finished her degree. Over the years, the Hawkings had three children—Robert, born in 1967; Lucy, born in 1970; and Timothy, born in 1979.

Hawking soon found that he needed a wheelchair to get around; he also required nursing care around the clock. When he contracted pneumonia in 1985, an operation was necessary to save his life; it also removed his voice. A computer programmer in California sent Hawking a program called Equalizer, which, Hawking said "allowed me to select words from a series of menus on the screen, by pressing a switch with my hand." When he has completed his statement, the computer attached to his wheelchair sends it to a speech synthesizer. "The only problem," said Hawking, "is that it gives me an American accent."

Before his impending marriage, Hawking realized he needed to finish his doctorate and get a job. He looked for a thesis topic. In Ferguson's Stephen Hawking: Quest for a Theory of Everything, Hawking said, "I started working hard for the first time in my life. To my surprise, I found I liked it. Maybe it is not really fair to call it work." His imagination was caught after reading Roger Penrose's ideas about collapsing stars that turn into black holes, or singularities (tiny but incredibly dense points of mass in spacetime from which not even light can escape due to the immense gravitational pull). Hawking asked: If stars gradually burn out and collapse under their own gravity into singularities, what happens if one looks back in time, to the beginning of the universe? What if the universe began as a singularity and then exploded in what is called the Big Bang?

Hawking worked with Penrose to prove that there must be a singularity in spacetime if general relativity is correct and the universe contains as much matter as scientists have observed. This bit of information was not completely well-received. Hawking said in A Brief History of Time that the opposition was "partly from the Russians because of their Marxist belief in scientific determinism [the idea that everything in the universe can be predicted], and partly from people who felt that the whole idea of singularities was repugnant and spoiled the beauty of Einstein's theory." Now, Hawking's theory is generally accepted; as he put it, "one cannot really argue with a mathematical theorem."

By the 1970s Hawking's work led him to study elementary particles in more depth, to see how they might contribute to an understanding of the cosmos. That study is now known as quantum mechanics, or the scientific theories dealing with the behavior of very small particles, such as photons and electrons, which make up larger particles, such as atoms. The basic rule of quantum mechanics is the uncertainty principle, formulated by the German physicist Werner Heisenberg. The uncertainty principle showed that some things in the universe just cannot be predicted—in particular, the behavior of small particles. Heisenberg found, and many researchers have since confirmed, that one can never know both the position and speed, or velocity, of a particle. Scientists can measure one but not the other at the same time. Hawking explained why in Black Holes and Baby Universes: "You had to use at least one packet, or quantum [of light] to try to measure the position of a particle. This packet of light would disturb the particle and cause it to move at a speed in some direction. The more accurately you wanted to measure the position of the particle, the greater the energy of the packet you would have to use and thus the more it would disturb the particle." The best scientists can do with these particles is to predict for them to be in a number of possible "quantum states" along the spacetime continuum.

In 1973, Hawking discovered that black holes appear to emit particles. In A Brief History of Time, he wrote that he was surprised and annoyed, but every time he redid the calculations, he came up with the same result. Knowing that nothing can escape from a black hole, Hawking theorized that what must be happening is that the particles come from the space just outside the event horizon (the boundary of a black hole).

At first, Hawking told only a few close colleagues about his discovery. But physicists around the world began checking his findings on their own and, when they reached the same conclusions, they agreed he was correct. Hawking told Stone that "Einstein never accepted quantum mechanics, because of its element of chance and uncertainty. He said, 'God does not play dice.' It seems that Einstein was doubly wrong. The quantum effects of black holes suggest that not only does God play dice, he sometimes throws them where they cannot be seen."

Hawking is not known as a particularly religious man, feeling that people were too insignificant in the grand expanse of the universe for a being such as God to care. Yet the subject of God comes up rather often in Hawking's writings and interviews. Tensions between science and the Roman Catholic church go back to Galileo's time. An experience of Hawking offers one example. He attended a cosmology conference at the Vatican in 1981 and gave a paper called "The Boundary Conditions of the Universe" in which he proposed that space and time in the universe were similar to the earth's surface—finite in area but without boundaries or edges. Pope John Paul II granted the conference participants an audience. In his interview for Stone, Hawking recalled that the Pope "told us that it was all right to study the evolution of the universe after the big bang, but we should not inquire into the big bang itself be-cause that was the moment of creation and therefore the work of God." He continued, "I was glad then that he did not know that the subject of the talk I had just given at the conference was the possibility that spacetime was finite but had no boundary, which means that it had no beginning, no moment of creation."

Hawking has made a number of provocative comments about the impact the current state of physics might have on the existence of God. In the chapter called "The Origin and Fate of the Universe" in A Brief History of Time, Hawking theorized that "if the universe is really completely self-contained, having no boundary or edge, it would have neither beginning nor end: it would simply be. What place, then, for a creator?" Some of the physicist's most well-known queries conclude the book: "Why does the universe go to all the bother of existing? Is the unified theory so compelling that it brings about its own existence? Or does it need a creator, and, if so, does he have any other effect on the universe? And who created him?" Hawking continued that if a unified theory is found, everyone will "be able to take part in the discussion of the question of why it is that we and the universe exist. If we find the answer to that, it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason—for then we would know the mind of God."

Michael D. Lemonick, writing in Time, noted that many Brief History readers have the impression that Hawking is trying to disprove the existence of God. Hawking responded that "you don't need to appeal to God to set the initial conditions for the universe, but that doesn't prove there is no God—only that he acts through the laws of physics."

Though A Brief History of Time is certainly Hawking's most popular book, it was not his first. The Large Scale Structure of Space-Time, cowritten with G.F.R. Ellis, deals with classical cosmological theory and is filled with equations. But Hawking wanted to write a book that would be sold at airport newsstands. He chose to submit his manuscript to Bantam, a publisher specializing in popular books, because "I wanted to explain how far I felt we had come in our understanding of the universe: how we might be near finding a complete theory that would describe the universe and everything in it…. I wanted it to get to as many people as possible," as he said in Black Holes and Baby Universes. Toward that end, his editor advised him that every equation he put in the book would halve the sales. Hawking managed with only e=mc2.

In A Brief History of Time, Hawking gives an overview of the history of physics, relying heavily on pictorial diagrams and examples using everyday objects and ideas to explain the nature of spacetime and imaginary time (which Hawking now wishes he had explained more thoroughly), general relativity, the uncertainty principle and elementary particles, black holes, the origin and possible future of the universe. In the process, he discusses his own theories and ideas on black holes, Hawking Radiation, the Big Bang, and the still elusive "Theory of Everything."

Jeremy Bernstein, writing in the New Yorker, compared A Brief History of Time to Steven Weinberg's The First Three Minutes. One problem in the book, he said, is some inaccuracy in Hawking's account of physicist George Gamow's work—Gamow's 1948 paper was on "The Origin of Chemical Elements," not microwave radiation. But Bernstein also pointed out that "very few active scientists … actually take the trouble to read the papers of their early predecessors. A kind of folklore builds up which bears only a tangential relationship to reality." Martin Gardner spotted a couple of other historical errors in his New York Review of Books article. First, Newton believed in absolute time, not absolute space, and second, it was not Berkeley who believed that "'all material objects … are an illusion.'" In an aside, Gardner considered "The Origin and Fate of the Universe" chapter "the book's centerpiece." Taking the book as a whole, Commentary critic Jeffrey Marsh called it "a concise, firsthand account of current scientific thinking," and A.J. Ayer, writing in the London Review of Books, said that "Hawking gives a more lucid account than any that has yet come my way" of the complicated world of modern physics.

When producer Gordon Freeman and Hawking decided to make a film of A Brief History of Time, they went to Steven Spielberg for financing assistance. Errol Morris would direct, Gerald Peary would write the film, and Hawking would contribute to the narrative of the film and help edit the final product. The movie was filmed in a studio made to resemble Hawking's office in Cambridge. Writer Peary interviewed director Morris for Interview. When asked if Hawking disliked anything in the film, Morris replied that "he was always opposed to the chicken at the very beginning of the movie." Asked what brought Hawking the "most immediate pleasure" about the film, Morris said that "he thanked me for making his mother into a movie star."

In a review of the film, Time's Richard Schickel saw the "bottom line" as: "The real world and the theoretical universe of a physicist are explored with simplicity and elegance." The film is a series of short scenes focusing on Hawking, family members, Hawking, col-leagues, old friends, Hawking—all having to do with Hawking's life and work in physics. Schickel writes that in watching the film "one begins to perceive a powerful analogy between Hawking's condition and the thrust of his thought. His disease seems to have affected him much as loss of energy affects a failing star."

After reviewing Black Holes and Baby Universes, critics who complained that the author did not reveal enough of himself in A Brief History of Time were not disappointed. The first three essays in the book are autobiographical. The last chapter is a transcript of Hawking's appearance on BBC's Desert Island Discs program in 1992. And in between are more essays on cosmology and quantum mechanics. A reviewer for Publishers Weekly said that Hawking "sheds light" on his personal life, and his "mind sparks in" the scientific essays that comprise the rest of the book. Michael D. Lemonick, writing in Time, quoted Hawking's answer to the question, "Why, when his days are already overcrowded with scientific meetings, lecture tours and the occasional sit-down with disabled kids, did he take the time to write a new book? 'I had to pay for my nurses.'"

In 1995, Hawking teamed up with Roger Penrose to write The Nature of Space and Time. The book contains lectures both professors delivered during the mid-1990s. Delving into quantum and gravitational theories, the book is, "although well done … not for the general reader," according to a reviewer for Publishers Weekly. American Scientist reviewer Arlen Anderson praised Hawking and Penrose, admitting that even though The Nature of Space and Time is a challenging read, "Hawking and Penrose chose to treat the audience's intelligence with respect and to give them a sincere taste of 'the real thing.'"

Hawking's 2001 book, Universe in a Nutshell, confused critics as much as it charmed them. Here, Hawking deals with the history of relativity, predicting the future, shaping time, and even individuals using time travel to wipe out bad genes from the pool. Booklist reviewer Brad Hooper praised Hawking for not "watering down his material condescending to his audience." Gregory Benford, who interviewed Hawking for Reason, noted that Universe in a Nutshell includes "friendly illustrations to help readers decipher such complex topics as superstring theory and the nature of time." Benford explained that translating equations into text is challenging and "pictures help enormously." A reviewer for Scientific American agreed that the illustrations "add illumination to the illuminating text." American Scientist reviewer Rocky Kolb described other methods Hawking used to assist readers in decoding the text. One such example is the independent nature of each chapter. Readers are able to jump around and read chapters that interest and skip more complex material. While Kolb admitted that Universe in a Nutshell is not easy reading, he commended Hawking's use of "broad brush [strokes], but even with the absence of details the reader is able to appreciate the grandeur of the landscape."

Hawking added personal anecdotes to Universe in a Nutshell and even touched on subjects not directly related to cosmology: evolution of intelligence and the future of mankind. An M2 Best Books reviewer praised Hawking for his ability to "make the unreachable available" and making Universe in a Nutshell "both rigorous and comprehensible." And Jeffrey Beall, writing for Library Journal, wrote that by infusing wit into his writing and not taking himself too seriously, Hawking helps "place our strange universe in a more human context."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Cole, Ron, Stephen Hawking: Solving the Mysteries of the Universe, Raintree Steck-Vaughn (Austin, TX), 1997.

Ferguson, Kitty, Stephen Hawking: Quest for a Theory of Everything, Bantam Books (New York, NY), 1992.

Filkin, David, Stephen Hawking's Universe: The Cosmos Explained, Basic Books (New York, NY), 1997.

Hawking, Stephen, A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes, Bantam Books (New York, NY), 1988.

Hawking, Stephen, Black Holes and Baby Universes and Other Essays, Bantam Books (New York, NY), 1993.

Henderson, Harry, Stephen Hawking, Lucent Books (San Diego, CA), 1995.

McDaniel, Melissa, Stephen Hawking: Revolutionary Physicist, Chelsea House (New York, NY), 1994.

Sakurai, Gail, Stephen Hawking: Understanding the Universe, Children's Press (New York, NY), 1996.

Stone, Gene, Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time: A Reader's Companion, Bantam Books (New York, NY), 1992.

Strathern, Paul, Hawking and Black Holes, Anchor Books (New York, NY), 1998.

White, Michael, and John Gribbin, Stephen Hawking: A Life in Science, Dutton (New York, NY), 1992.

PERIODICALS

American Journal of Physics, July, 1997, Curt Cutler, review of The Nature of Space and Time, p. 676.

American Scientist, July-August, 1997, Arlen Anderson, review of The Nature of Space and Time, p. 377; March-April, 2002, Rocky Kolb, "Hawking's Brane New World," p. 182.

Astronomy, November, 1996, review of The Nature of Space and Time, p. 100.

Booklist, December 1, 2001, Brad Hooper, review of The Universe in a Nutshell, p. 616.

Choice, June, 1995, C.J. Meyers, review of A Brief History of Time, p. 1633; June, 1996, D. Park, review of The Nature of Space and Time, p. 1683.

Commentary, September, 1988, Jeffrey Marsh, review of A Brief History of Time.

Forbes, March 23, 1987, p. 142.

Interview, September, 1992.

Library Journal, February 15, 1996, Jack W. Weigel, review of The Nature of Space and Time, p. 172; January, 2002, Jeffrey Beall, review of The Universe in a Nutshell, p. 146.

London Review of Books, January 5, 1989, A.J. Ayer, review of A Brief History of Time; August 1, 1996 review of The Nature of Space and Time, p. 18.

M2 Best Books, January 7, 2002, review of The Universe in a Nutshell.

Mercury, May-June, 1997, Arno F. Granados, review of The Nature of Space and Time, p. 33.

Nature, January 25, 1996, review of The Nature of Space and Time, p. 309.

New Scientist, March 16, 1996, John Barrow, review of The Nature of Space and Time, p. 2021; November 17, 2001, David Lindley, "A Small Slice through Space," p. 56.

New Statesman, November 19, 2001, Bryan Appleyard, "King of Infinite Space," p. 52.

New Statesman & Society, June 24, 1988, p. 39.

Newsweek, June 13, 1988, p. 56.

New Yorker, June 6, 1988, Jeremy Bernstein, review of A Brief History of Time, p. 117.

New York Review of Books, June 16, 1988, Martin Gardner, review of A Brief History of Time.

People, September 11, 1989, p. 11.

Physics Today, July, 1996, John Preskill, review of The Nature of Space and Time, p. 18.

Publishers Weekly, November 1, 1993, p. 33; January 15, 1996, review of The Nature of Space and Time, p. 456; March 10, 1997, review of The Large, the Small, and the Human Mind, p. 59; November 19, 2001, Daisy Maryles and Dick Donahue, "A Mighty 'Universe,'" p. 21.

Reason, April, 2002, Gregory Benford, "Leaping the Abyss," p. 25.

Science, June 7, 1996, Robert M. Wald, review of The Nature of Space and Time, p. 1445; April 12, 2002, Marc Kamionkowski, review of The Universe in a Nutshell, p. 267.

Science and Society, summer, 1995, Derek Lovejoy, review of A Brief History of Time, p. 206.

Science News, May 18, 2002, review of The Future of Spacetime, p. 319.

Scientific American, March, 2002, review of The Universe in a Nutshell, p. 100.

Spectator, November 10, 2001, Robert Macfarlane, review of The Universe in a Nutshell, p. 80.

Time, February 8, 1988, p. 58; August 31, 1992; September 27, 1993; November 5, 2001, Michael D. Lemonick, "Beyond the Theoretical," p. 106.

Times Higher Education Supplement, March 15, 1996, Joseph Silk, review of The Nature of Space and Time, p. 24; February 1, 2002, Philip Anderson, "Einstein and the P-branes," p. 25.