New Scientist: The Origin of (Almost) Everything

Introduction by Professor Stephen Hawking. When Edwin Hubble peered through his telescope in the 1920s, he was shocked to find that nearly all the galaxies he could see were moving away from each other. If these galaxies were in constant motion, he reasoned, they must have been, at some point, on top of each other. This discovery changed the debate about one of the most fundamental questions of human existence—how did the universe begin? Every society has its own stories about the origin of the universe and its inhabitants, but now, with the ability to peer into the early universe and the deployment of knowledge gleaned from archaeology, geology, evolutionary biology, and cosmology, we are closer than ever to understanding the origin of it all. In The Origin of (Nearly Everything), a new scholar explores the modern origin stories of everything from the Big Bang, meteorites, and dark energy, to dinosaurs, civilization, timekeeping, navel fluff, and beyond. From how complex life evolved on Earth, to the first written language, to how humans conquered space, The Origin of (Nearly Everything) offers a unique history of the past, present, and future of our universe.