A Brief History of Time, by Stephen Hawking, is a book that explains the basic laws that govern the evolution of the universe, shows how scientists developped their understanding of these laws, and what our current understanding of these laws mean in respect to the past and future of the universe. It is a most excellent book on the topic of cosmology and, despite the fact it was written in the 80s, is a great book. Stephen Hawking wrote it with the common man in mind, and explained thoroughly how these basic laws and theories affect us and the universe around us. He covers topics from the singularity to imaginary time. If you have not read this book yet, then you should go to your local library and see if they have a copy, because this book is great.

I read this book and its sequel. Excellent writing, great gfx, and very easy to understand.,

Good, I am not good at understanding anything . lolz. It sounds like a good book, I will look into it, I usually dont read but I think I will look into this one .

It has a sequel? What's the name?

I think its the Universe in a Nutshell. But don't quote me on that

I just did. And yes, you're correct about that. Strangely enough, the cover illustration is a picture of a universe in yes, a nutshell. Weird.

I'll definitely have to look for that book next time I go to the library. Right now I'm reading another book, The Five Ages of the Universe, so I might wait like three weeks before getting The Universe in a Nutshell.

What's it about? Any good?

I just checked it out yesterday, but I can tell you it covers the five ages of the universe, hence the title. The first age, the Primordial Era, is the time from the beginning to when radiation and matter were separated to a degree that hydrogen and other atoms could come together and undergo nuclear fusion. The second age, the Stelliferous Era, is the time from the first nuclear fusion to when all major stars have been finished. We are in this era. The third age, the Degenerate Era, is a time when only brown dwarves, white dwarves, neutron stars, and black holes are the only massive objects remaining. There are also planets, moons, etc., but these aren't important. The reason it is degenerate is because this is the era when all protons will eventually decay into their constituent particles. The fourth age, the Black Hole Era, is dominated by black holes. Because of their incredible gravity, black holes were immune to proton degeneration. However, as predicted by Stephen Hawking, these black holes will eventually evaporate, which leads us to the fifth age. The Dark Era is the edge of infinity, when all matter will have cooled down and the universe will basically be featureless. Here is a timeline:

10^-50 to 10^5 years: Primodial Era
10^6 to 10^14 years: Stelliferous Era
10^15 to 10^39 years: Degenerate Era
10^40 to 10^100 years: Black Hole Era
10^101 years to infinity: Dark Era

These are massive time scales the book deals with. Using all our current knowledge, it predicts what cosmological events are likely to take place from the beginning to infinity.

Wow, sounds fascinating. Who's the author? I'll have to check it out.

The authors are Fred Adams and Greg Laughlin.

K, I'll look for it the next time I'm at the library.

note to self, read these books.

I just finished reading The Five Ages of the Universe and I must say it was a preety amazing book. It tries to predict what is most likely to happen from here to eternity. The most interesting things I found were proton degeneration, labratory-made universes, and black hole computers.

Crazy. Sounds fascinating; can't wait until I have enough non-schoolwork to read it.