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Introduction by Professor Stephen Hawking.

From what actually happened in the Big Bang to the accidental discovery of post-it notes, science is packed with surprising discoveries. Did you know, for instance, that if you were to get too close to a black hole it would suck you up like a noodle (it´s called spaghettification), why your keyboard is laid out in QWERTY (it´s not to make it easier to type) or whether the invention of the wheel was less important to civilisation than the bag (think about it). New Scientist does.

And now they and illustrator Jennifer Daniel want to take you on a whistlestop journey from the start of our universe (through the history of stars, galaxies, meteorites, the Moon and dark energy) to our planet (through oceans and weather to oil) and life (through dinosaurs to emotions and sex) to civilisation (from cities to alcohol and cooking), knowledge (from alphabets to alchemy) ending up with technology (computers to rocket science).

Witty essays explore the concepts alongside enlightening infographics that zoom from how many people have ever lived to showing you how a left-wing brain differs from a right-wing one.

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Important... The Origin of (Almost) Everything doesn´t look like a typical science book. It´s friendly and colourful. Its blocks of text and ample images, makes it read more like a magazine than textbook. Unravelling dozens of life´s biggest mysteries, Lawton and Daniel´s irreverent storytelling approach answers nagging questions that have inspired centuries of scientific inquiry... Like The Origin of (Almost) Everything suggests, the best science writing and illustrations don´t just answer your questions - they compel you to ask more. WIRED

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Hawking, Stephen
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.

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