Stephen Hawking is one of the best theoretical physicists of our time, and he is undoubtedly the only known theoretical physicist of our time. I am referring to Sarkozy, Ratzinger and, for example, Einstein. I don’t know to what extent this has influenced Hawking’s name to appear on the cover of The grand design much more lyrics than Leonard Mlodinow’s. It should be clarified, however, that Mlodinow's scientific resume does not turn Hawkingen off at all; Mlodinow is a Ph.D. in physics, but is better known for his role as a writer in Star Wars, Star Trek and McGyver, among others. This is the company's second job, together with Hawking, in the UK.

The grand design is read as easily and quickly as you can read a scientific outreach work. This feature is attributed to the Mlodinowen pen by the experts. The pages of The grand design will illustrate quantum mechanics, the theory M still to be developed and its eleven dimensions, the anthropic principle, the origin of the universe and the multiverse. Difficult issues for the general public, but as always, Hawking has tried to give explanations like for all those of us who don't know anything about mathematics. There are phrases that you can read more than once, but the same is true of all books of this kind. Albert Einstein said that things should be explained in the simplest way possible, but not simpler. And yet, the authors have simplified it quite a bit. Maybe too much if you're used to reading outreach work on cosmology.

The book begins with force: it declares that philosophy has died without having finished the first page. And in the first paragraph of just six pages puts Big Questions on the table: Why is there something instead of nothing? Why do we exist? Of course, his answer is not in the book, even if it is sometimes suggested. Rather, it seems that, judging by the number of quotations that are made on the subject, the authors have wanted to demonstrate, at all costs, that the universe has not needed a Creator – God we would call it at this latitude – as if science had not demonstrated it long ago! It is too late to try to convince yourself that you are no longer convinced of it, but since there are still many powerful castes of this species, there was a huge controversy around the book, even before it was published. Hawking has denied the existence of God!

Add to this the reputation of author and the intended purpose of the book to try to explain what surrounds us and gives us the name of reality, and where it would come from, excited by the curiosity of thousands of buyers. By the way, the book says that the universe was built by itself and by nothing, by gravity. But not why.

The grand design. Stephen Hawking & Leonard Mlodinow. Bantam Bookds 2010