Stephen Hawking was a world-renowned theoretical physicist and cosmologist long before he became internationally famous, but what made him a household name was a book: “A Brief History of Time,” which was published in 1988 to staggering commercial success. The work has sold over 10 million copies and has been translated into 40 languages. This is especially remarkable because, when measured by how well it achieves its goal of explaining modern cosmology to a wide audience, “A Brief History of Time” is a failure. A lot of it is tough going for the nonspecialist and some of it downright impenetrable, particularly its discussion...

Source: Wall Street Journal September 04, 2020 14:37 UTC