In This Book Stephen Hawking Takes Us To The Cutting Edge Of Theoretical Physics To Explain In Laymen's Terms The Principles That Control Our Universe. Like Many In The Community Of Theoretical Physicists, Professor Hawking Is Seeking To Uncover The Grail Of Science-the Elusive Theory Of Everything That Lies At The Heart Of The Cosmos. He Guides Us On His Search To Uncover The Secrets Of The Universe-from Supergravity To Supersymmetry, From Quantum Theory To M-theory, From Holography To Duality. He Takes Us To The Wild Frontiers Of Science, Where Superstring Theory And P-branes May Hold The Final Clue To The Puzzle. Copious Four-color Illustrations Help Clarify This Journey Into A Surreal Wonderland Where Particles, Sheets, And Strings Move In Eleven Dimensions; Where Black Holes Evaporate And Disappear, Taking Their Secret With Them; And Where The Original Cosmic Seed From Which Our Own Universe Sprang Was A Tiny Nut. A Brief History Of Relativity. How Einstein Laid The Foundations Of The Two Fundamental Theories Of The Twentieth-century : General Relativity And Quantum Theory -- The Shape Of Time. Einstein's General Relativity Gives Time A Shape : How This Can Be Reconciled With Quantum Theory -- The Universe In A Nutshell. The Universe Has Multiple Histories, Each Of Whoch Is Determined By A Tiny Nut -- Predicting The Future. How The Loss Of Information In Black Holes May Reduce Our Ability To Predict The Future -- Protecting The Past. Is Time Travel Possible? Could An Advanced Civilization Go Back And Change The Past? -- Our Future? Star Trek Or Not?. How Biological And Electronic Life Will Go On Developing In Complexity At An Ever Increasing Rate -- Brane New World. Do We Live On A Brane Or Are We Just Holograms? Stephen Hawking. Includes Index. Includes Bibliographical References (page 209) And Index.