Stephen Hawking: The Grand Design

empty space, impossibility of

episode of inflation

expanding model

Feynman’s sum over histories and

gods as causal in

as God’s dollhouse

grand design

gravity and

helium, lithium, and hydrogen in

human-centered

inflation theory

inhomogeneities in

laws of (see also Laws of nature)

M-theory and

multiple (see also Multiverse concept)

multiple-star systems

no-boundary condition

origin of

phlogiston theory

planetary orbits

planetary systems of

Ptolemaic model of

rejection of indifferent natural laws

size of

size of our galaxy

space-time warpage

spontaneous quantum creation of

stars

static or steady-state theory

Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything

Ussher, Bishop

Vacuum fluctuations

Virtual particles

Von Neumann, John

Wallace, Alfred Russel

Wavelength

radio waves

visible

X-rays

Wave-particle duality

Wave theory. See also Interference

double-slit experiment

Feynman’s sum over histories and

interference

phase

Weak anthropic principle

Weak nuclear force

quantum field theory of

Weinberg, Steven

Wheeler, John

“Which-path” information

Young, Thomas

“Zur Elektrodynamik bewegter Körper” (“On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies” [Einstein])

Zwicky, Fritz

STEPHEN HAWKING was the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge for thirty years, and has been the recipient of numerous awards and honors including, most recently, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. His books for the general reader include the classic A Brief History of Time, the essay collection Black Holes and Baby Universes, The Universe in a Nutshell, and A Briefer History of Time.

LEONARD MLODINOW is a physicist at Caltech and the best-selling author of The Drunkard’s Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives, Euclid ’s Window: The Story of Geometry from Parallel Lines to Hyperspace, Feynman’s Rainbow: A Search for Beauty in Physics and in Life, and A Briefer History of Time. He also wrote for Star Trek: The Next Generation. He lives in South Pasadena, California.