A brief history of 'A Brief History of Time,' and some related questions, naturally.
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It's a book on cosmology first published in 1988. Who wrote it?
The book's subtitle (From ____ to _____) suggests a particularly broad time frame as its scope, though the second blank isn't really an event. What should those blanks be? (both blanks are multiple words)
The first edition of the book featured an introduction from what other popular cosmologist?
Another text was published in 2005 (by the original author as well as Leonard Mlodinow) which is considered to be an updated version of the original. Despite this expansion, its title is a diminutive take on the original. What is that name?
A Brief History of Time was also the title of a 1991 documentary about the answer to #1. Its director went on to win Best Documentary Feature in 2003 for The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara. Who is he?
Keeping this slight diversion going for a question or so, the previously referenced film was scored by what minimalist American composer? He also earned a BAFTA win (and an Oscar nomination) for his work on The Hours.
Per the author:
Why did so many people buy the book? It is difficult for me to be objective, so I will go by what other people said. [...] They tended to follow a single formula: "[author] has _____ disease (the term used in American reviews) [...] Yet he has written this book about the biggest question of all: Where did we come from and where are we going?"
Whose name goes in the blank?
"_____ all the way down"
In context, the phrase refers to the problem of infinite regress. The creature missing from the quote forms the literal basis for some creation mythologies, including that of the fictional Discworld universe. What animal fills the blank?
Another quote from the author: "Rather, there is a collection of every possible history for the universe, and all these histories are equally real (whatever that may mean)"
This quote is evocative of what interpretation of quantum mechanics espoused by the author, an interpretation which, loosely, shares its premise with many a time-travel story and their myriad threads.
Significantly less popular was the author's follow-up work: Black Holes and Baby _____ and Other Essays
What 'observable' term belongs in the blank?
The author and his daughter Lucy have also written a short series of childrens' books designed to teach children about astrophysics. They all feature what title character? For example, the first is _____'s Secret Key to the Universe
Apparently (i.e. according to Wikipedia, which does cite a book I don't exactly have on hand) the author was told that every time he inserted an equation the readership would be halved. As a result only one equation survived. What is it?