Description

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A science writer explains the significance of Stephen Hawking's work--in terms all of us can understand.

Stephen Hawking was one of the most important astrophysicists of the last fifty years. After the publication of A Brief History of Time, he became an international celebrity. Though the book sold in the millions, few readers really grasped the significance of his groundbreaking work. Now popular Austrian science blogger Florian Freistetter, himself an astronomer, makes Hawking's contributions accessible to everyday readers in this concise, very readable book.

By focusing on the essentials, Freistetter deftly and entertainingly makes Hawking's complex theoretical accomplishments understandable. Avoiding technicalities and jargon, he elucidates the great scientist's fascinating work on black holes, gravitational waves, the big bang, and singularities. Concluding with an appreciation of Hawking as a science communicator and popularizer, Freistetter conveys the importance of Hawking's scientific research in terms that nonspecialists can follow.

About the Author

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Florian Freistetter is an award-winning freelance science journalist and the author of several popular-science books on astronomy, including Isaac Newton: The Asshole Who Reinvented the Universe. He has also published more than five thousand articles on his blog, Astrodicticum Simplex, which is one of the most-read German-language science blogs. He writes a weekly column about mathematics for spektrum.de, as well as many other articles for various publications. Since 2015, he has produced and performed in humorous popular-science presentations, both in theaters in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland, and on the television show Science Busters. Having previously taught astronomy at the University of Heidelberg, Jena, and Vienna, he now hosts Sternengeschichten ("Star Stories"), a weekly podcast on astronomy.