Brief Answers to the Big Questions (Illustrated Edition): A beautiful new edition of the No. 1 Sunday...

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Stephen Hawking

Brief Answers to the Big Questions (Illustrated Edition)

A beautiful new edition of the No. 1 Sunday Times bestseller featuring 200+ illustrations

Stephen Hawking

$55

Hardback

Forthcoming
Pre-Order now

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English

John Murray
09 December 2025

Mathematics & Sciences; Popular science; Quantum physics (quantum mechanics & quantum field theory)

The million-copy bestseller now illustrated with over 200 full-colour images, illuminating the fascinating science of our universe like never before.

'A beautiful book by a brilliant mind' DAILY TELEGRAPH

'The best, most mind-bending sort of physics' THE TIMES

The world-famous cosmologist and #1 bestselling author of A Brief History of Time leaves us with his final thoughts on the universe's biggest questions in this brilliant posthumous work.

Is there a God?

How did it all begin?

Can we predict the future?

What is inside a black hole?

Is there other intelligent life in the universe?

Will artificial intelligence outsmart us?

How do we shape the future?

Will we survive on Earth?

Should we colonise space?

Is time travel possible?

Throughout his extraordinary career, Stephen Hawking expanded our understanding of the universe and unravelled some of its greatest mysteries. But even as his theoretical work on black holes, imaginary time and multiple histories took his mind to the furthest reaches of space, Hawking always believed that science could also be used to fix the problems on our planet.

And now, as we face potentially catastrophic changes here on Earth - from climate change to dwindling natural resources to the threat of artificial super-intelligence - Stephen Hawking turns his attention to the most urgent issues for humankind.

Wide-ranging, intellectually stimulating, passionately argued, and infused with his characteristic humour, Brief Answers to the Big Questions, the final book from one of the greatest minds in history, is a personal view on the challenges we face as a human race, and where we, as a planet, are heading next.

By: Stephen Hawking
Imprint: John Murray
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Edition: Illustrated edition
Dimensions: Height: 244mm, Width: 178mm, Spine: 26mm
Weight: 1.051kg
ISBN: 9781399829250
ISBN 10: 1399829254
Pages: 304
Publication Date: 09 December 2025
Audience: General/trade , College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , ELT Advanced , Primary
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

STEPHEN HAWKING was a brilliant theoretical physicist and is generally considered to have been one of the world's greatest thinkers. He held the position of Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of C ambridge for thirty years and is the author of A Brief History of Time which was an international bestseller. His other books for the general reader include A Briefer History of Time, the essay collection Black Holes and Baby Universes, The Universe in a Nutshell, The Grand Design and Black Holes: The BBC Reith Lectures. He died on 14 March, 2018.

Reviews for Brief Answers to the Big Questions (Illustrated Edition): A beautiful new edition of the No. 1 Sunday Times bestseller featuring 200+ illustrations

A beautiful book from a brilliant mind * Daily Telegraph * Almost everything in Brief Answers is effortlessly instructive, absorbing, up to the minute and - where it matters - witty * Guardian * The best, most mind-bending sort of physics: black holes, time travel, the origins of the universe * The Times * It is that ultra-distinctive voice (modest, profound, sometimes very funny) that knits this book together * Sunday Times *