Collector s Edition with Audiobook read by the AuthorStephen Hawking is widely believed to be one of the world s greatest minds: a brilliant theoretical physicist whose work helped to reconfigure models of the universe and to redefine what s in it. Imagine sitting in a room listening to Hawking discuss these achievements and place them in historical context. It would be like hearing Christopher Columbus on the New World.Hawking presents a series of seven lec-tures covering everything from big bang to black holes to string theory that capture not only the brilliance of Hawking s mind but his characteristic wit as well. Of his research on black holes, which absorbed him for more than a decade, he says, It might seem a bit like looking for a black cat in a coal cellar. Hawking begins with a history of ideas about the universe, from Aristotle s determination that the Earth is round to Hubble s discovery, over 2000 years later, that the universe is expanding. Using that as a launching pad, he explores the reaches of modern physics, including theories on the origin of the universe (e.g., the big bang), the nature of black holes, and space-time.