Dr. Swapna S Kolhatkar, Assistant Professor, Marathwada Mitra Mandals College of Commerce, Pune

Genre and Context : The book is an autobiography of Stephen Hawking and delves into his intellectual abilities and strong determination to overcome his health issues and share his ideas on physics.

Initial Impression : I admire Stephen Hawking for his intellectual abilities and also his strong determination, no matter whatever the odds. It was no wonder then that I bought a book on “Quest for Theory of Everything”, written about him and his theories by Kitty Ferguson. The book is a parallel between the theories of expanding universe and collapsing health of the great physicist. My interest in the book stemmed from reading about a person who approached science through the scientific inventions.

Summary : In the first few pages, one is made aware about the challenges of predicting the position and velocity of an object at the same time. I also read about the expanding universe which implies that the dark matter or space between macro objects keeps on increasing. In other words, the stars, the galaxies are moving away from each other. The universe is this ‘large’, or probably infinite due to this expansion and most likely no forces of attraction to hold these galaxies together.

Compare this with the microparticles which stay together but maintain their distance. For example, protons and neutrons are held together inside the nucleus whereas the electrons are outside the nucleus revolving in fixed orbits. It shows the existence of forces of attraction as well as repulsion, which more or less balance each other. As we probe further, we find that individual atoms may form bonds with other atoms of same or different elements. The force of attraction is maximum in case of such bonds. At micro level, the force of attraction is more easily seen as compared to macro level objects.

Personal Reflection : These two distinct scenarios, though related to micro physics and astronomy and celestial bodies, convey a deeper meaning for our society too. Whether it is the iron age or today’s computer age, humans have always shown a tendency to move away in search of relatively greener pastures; the search for exoplanets is only natural. The universe and we (human species) as a part of the universe, no wonder, always try to expand our horizons. This possibly arises due to strong repulsion and out of our need to eat more than we can digest. We spread because we cannot be content at one place with one another.

Our social structure, though encourages cohesion and coupling, also exhibits intolerance and violence that spills over countries and continents too. Most probably these are balancing forces as long as there is some system in the vast chaos, but there is discord in between which shows repulsion getting stronger. In a society or a section of society, where there is peace and harmony, it probably shows more attraction than repulsion. Interactions between humans has reduced and has got replaced with interaction with hi tech gadgets, but nevertheless, its attraction between human and gadget. Overall the entropy remains constant.

The funny part is that if energy and mass are constant in nature though interchangeable, then in the case of humans also it is true. Those who consume more mass need to spend so much energy in order to keep their balance. Also the fact that if we take more then we must give back more too. Quantum physics surely holds true for us all.

Reading the book made me think of the similarities in humans and micro physics, and the dissimilarities too. Nevertheless, what if emotions are bosons and quarks, then surely there is an explanation to human behavior too.

Conclusion : The book is an excellent read that keeps the reader engrossed through science advancements, human nature & challenges and critical thinking on associating the issues with society. Personally I would rate it 5/5