The Shortest History of Time by Stephen Hawking, Leonard Mlodinow

• The New York Times bestseller
• Book No. 1 in Physics
• "Foundation" series of popular science books

Stephen Hawking is called the modern Einstein for his scientific works on cosmology and theoretical physics. A professor at Cambridge University and a brilliant scientist, he, like no other, has done much to popularize modern science. Together with the American physicist and mathematician Leonard Mlodinow, he created "A Shorter History of Time", which was first published in 1988 and was on the bestseller list of London's The Sunday Times for four consecutive years. Over the next 20 years, the book was published in 10 million copies, translated into 35 languages, rewritten in the spirit of new discoveries and still today gains more and more enthusiastic readers.

Humanity has gathered a wealth of knowledge about the cosmos, and with the help of superfast computers and superpowerful telescopes, has seen the birth and death of distant stars. But when was the Universe itself born? What is the nature of time and did it exist before the Big Bang? Is it possible to run it backwards, and are dreams of time travel really that fantastic?

Explaining the essence of the most complex scientific theories in understandable language using a single formula is a task only Stephen Hawking can do. But he leaves the main question open...