![]() ![]() The "grand design," says Hawking, is to be found in M-theory, an idea launched in the mid-1990s.Īnnoyingly, there's no agreement on what the "M'' stands for. "It's turtles all the way down."įor some readers, the answer from Hawking, known for his work on black holes and author of the best-selling " A Brief History of Time," and physicist Leonard Mlodinow, may not be much more satisfying. "What does the turtle stand on?" the lecturer asked. ![]() Hawking likes the tale of the old lady who accused a lecturing cosmologist of talking nonsense: She knew for a fact that the whole universe lies on a flat plate, borne on the back of an enormous turtle. "The Grand Design" may sharpen appetites for answers to questions like "Why is there something rather than nothing?" and "Why do we exist?" - questions that have troubled thinking people at least as far back as the ancient Greeks. Cosmologists, the people who study the entire cosmos, will want to read British physicist and mathematician Stephen Hawking's new book, " The Grand Design" ( Random House, $28), by Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow. ![]()
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