A Briefer History of Time: From the Big Bang to the Big Mac

by Eric Schulman

An irreverent overview of important cosmic milestones covers topics ranging from the formation of the galaxy to the expansion of the Internet

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, Humor, Physics, History

171 pages, Paperback

First published May 15, 1999

Reviews

[Yanty Chen · Rating 5 out of 5]

who can imagine that there will be an anecdote book about Stephen Hawking's The Brief History of Time? Eric Schulman's jokes on physics made physics easy to understand,from the beginning of time untul the modern era

[Nathan Hoyt · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can't say I understood everything in this, but I certainly learned more and cleared up a few questions I have. Very interesting if you are a science nerd and into this topic.

[Martin Kollouch · Rating 4 out of 5]

Vtipná kniha, kterou člověk přečte dvěma dechy. Zábavnou formou podá informace a když se člověk nic nového nedozví, alespoň má chvíle legrace.

[Althea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hilarious and Concise! It retains my attention but I still can't understand a thing lol. That glossary choked me 😂

[clea · Rating 4 out of 5]

if only my science teachers teach like this i wouldve enjoyed science tbh

[Remo · Rating 2 out of 5]

>Hablé ya de este libro en una entrada anterior. El autor explica que, en realidad, el libro entero surgió del famoso post de la historia del universo en menos de 100 palabras, enviado como chiste a alt.rec.humor. Los de Annals of Improbable Research (que son los que dan los premios Ig® Nobel, qué pequeño es el www) se pusieron en contacto con el autor y le propusieron lo del libro, que redactó de una sentada.
El libro no es una joya, pero da para pasar un buen rato. Me ha gustado sobre todo la primera parte, en la que habla del Universo. Cuando empieza a hablar de Historia no tiene tanto gancho. Además, está redactado como ejercicio de estilo, al estilo de Queneau, como bien recalcó Su en este comentario. Así, la separación de las cuatro fuerzas fundamentales está contada como si se tratara de una carrera de caballos, la aniquilación de materia-antimateria toma la forma del primer capítulo del Génesis (Y Dios dijo "Hágase la luz", y muchas partículas se aniquilaron con sus antipartículas, produciendo fotones, y se hizo la luz), la formación de galaxias se cuenta como si fuera una noticia de sucesos, la vida y muerte de las estrellas se cuenta como si un sargento les estuviera echando la bronca a un grupo de reclutas (¡¡¡De acuerdo, apestosos reclutas estelares!!!¡¡ ¡Es hora de que aprendáis algo que os interesa!!! ¡¡¡Estoy seguro de que cuando entrásteis aquí habíais leído esa bonita publicidad sobre lo mucho que brillaríais si fuéseis estrellas supermasivas!!! ¡¡¡Pero lo que seguro que ninguno leyó, imbéciles, fue la letra pequeña!!! ¡¡¡Las estrellas supermasivas sólo tardan siete millones de años en reventar!!! ¡¡¡Y eso es muy poco tiempo!!!...), los distintos modos de acabar la vida de las estrellas se cuentan como el cuento de Ana y los tres ositos (Éranse una vez tres estrellas se masas 0,1, 1 y 25 masas solares...), y muchos más. Es entretenido y geek por momentos, ya les digo.
Por cierto, que ahora Stephen Hawking ha publicado la segunda parte de su Breve historia del Tiempo (A Brief History of Time) y la ha titulado, no podía ser de otra manera, A Briefer History of Time . Así que ya tenemos dos libros con el mismo e improbable título. Recuerden que el libro de Schulman puede descargarse de manera gratuita en formato .pdf (siempre que no les importe una maquetación revenida) aquí.
Mi nota: Entretenido. Se puede aprender con él, sobre todo en la primera parte.

[Vishal · Rating 4 out of 5]

So you want to know what's been going around all these 13.8 billion years of time after the creation of the Universe but don't have much time to spend on it?

Or you have an interest in Physics with a rudimentary knowledge and would like to know more?

Or you are a Physicist who'd like to write a popular science book?

This is book is just right for all of you! Written in a light humorous manner with simplicizing the complicated ideas and propagating them by means of parody, this book can be read by anyone with basic understanding of science. The book summarizes the most important 53 events after the Big Bang. All the events like Quantum fluctuation, Spontaneous symmetry breaking to nucleosynthesis, formation of elements to formation of solar system and evolution/progress of life and then history of humanity are described "brieferly"(as the name suggests, in one or two pages each). Author informs us about the topics by writing them in the style of popular means of communication like drama scripts, transcripts of Television shows(culinary shows, talk shows, game shows, reality shows), poetry, ballads, pulp fiction and many other various styles.

All in all, it is a lesson for science popularizers about how to make the common people read your stuff. And it is a lesson for common people to know how interesting Science is and it is fun to learn about it.

[Jc · Rating 5 out of 5]

A nice, friendly introductory overview of theoretical physics. Written on a pop level for someone who has at least completed a high-school-level physics class and who has at least some college (as well as a strong interest in the subject). Any one with less would find it boring and hard to get through; while an actual physicist would find it very light reading.

That being said, it is easier to work through than the original "A Brief History of Time," with some nice illustrations. Also nice, SH has updated some of his ideas as the science has evolved somewhat since the late 80s.

A fun review of a subject that I am only peripherally familiar with.

[Socrates · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was expecting more from this book. I suspect it's for people who have no exposure to the topics presented.

Even then I still wouldn't recommend this book to anyone.

[Nicole McCann · Rating 4 out of 5]

this genre is not my favorite, but this book was really interesting.

[Readerjen · Rating 3 out of 5]

For when you are looking for physics humor. Come on. Who doesn't love physics humor?

[Wan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really delicious book. My favourite part (spoiler alert) is the stone age in which the whole chapter is made up of grunts.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book presented a solid summary of my college physics course. It was straightforward and easy to follow.

[Melanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

From clever to more clever to cleverer still in presenting galactic history in down-to-earth terms. Lots of laughing along the way.

[Alan Chen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Amusing, but not overly funny. Good to check out from the library, but definitely not worth the $15 list price. Maybe not even $5. The breadth of things that are covered is pretty wide though.

[John Hester · Rating 5 out of 5]

Steven is a great writer.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent little book that combines science and humor. Good value.