Cliquer sur une vignette pour aller sur Google Books.
Chargement... Stephen Hawking: An Unfettered Mind (2012)par Kitty Ferguson
Aucun Chargement...
Inscrivez-vous à LibraryThing pour découvrir si vous aimerez ce livre Actuellement, il n'y a pas de discussions au sujet de ce livre. aucune critique | ajouter une critique
"Stephen Hawking has been an iconic figure in physics for the last half a century, making many groundbreaking discoveries on the nature of the universe. Yet while his mind roams to the farthest corners of reality, his body has become increasingly trapped by the advance of Lou Gehrig's disease, which has bound him to a wheelchair, without speech or movement except for a few facial muscles. Told in his youth that he would not live past his 20s, Hawking will turn 70 in 2012, and today he continues to inspire millions, drawing rock-concert-sized crowds wherever he lectures. Science writer Kitty Ferguson has been working with Stephen Hawking for decades, and produced an internationally bestselling biography of his life in 1992. Now, she brings his life as well as his scientific discoveries up-to-date. This is a remarkable look at how one of the greatest scientific mind alive overcame the odds to become the truly inspirational figure he is today"-- Aucune description trouvée dans une bibliothèque |
Discussion en coursAucunCouvertures populaires
Google Books — Chargement... GenresClassification décimale de Melvil (CDD)530.092Natural sciences and mathematics Physics Physics Physics Biography And History BiographyClassification de la Bibliothèque du CongrèsÉvaluationMoyenne:
Est-ce vous ?Devenez un(e) auteur LibraryThing. |
This is a biography of Hawking, but the primary focus is on his work, and Ferguson manages a reasonably good layman's account of the science involved. She also gives us a good feel for Hawking as a human being: a brilliant but human guy with a great sense of humor and the ability to rise to some incredibly substantial challenges. So if you're interested in reading about Hawking's work and personality, it's definitely worth a look.
There are some things about it that bothered me a little, though. There are aspects of Hawking's personal life it declines to get into, which is something I respect, but in places -- such as the very brief mention of allegations in the early 2000s that Hawking was the victim of domestic abuse -- the writing sort of feels like it's shading from respectfully silent to annoyingly coy.
That's pretty minor, though. More irritating to me was Ferugson's recurring desire to talk about God and religion: Hawking's attitude towards these subjects, the extent to which his scientific formulations leave room for God and religious belief, etc. I suppose some of this is inevitable when you're talking about cosmology and the search for the origin of the universe, but as someone who doesn't believe religion has a place in science, I think she puts way too much emphasis on this subject. She's clearly trying very hard to be objective about it, but I nevertheless get the strong sense that she's projecting her own religious sensibilities onto things a bit too much, and I think she gets entirely too far into the philosophical weeds with it in the last chapter.
Rating: I sort of wanted to rate this one higher, because I don't have a problem recommending it, really, if you want to read about Hawking and his ideas. But the intrusion of the author's religious concerns irritates me just enough that I feel compelled to knock it down half a star. Obviously, that's not going to be an issue for everyone, but this is me rating it, so I'm giving it a 3.5/5. ( )