>> booktv will continue to bring you new programs and publishing dues. you can watch all of our past programs anytime at booktv.org. >> well, as far as i can tell we probably have i know leonard has readers from all over the world. back he has readers from the united states and canada and mexico, panama, -- ♪ ♪ ♪

♪ and probably even pasadena. [laughing] >> thank you. >> my pleasure. >> thank you everyone for joining us for the savings event. my name is kim sutton and and a host of tonight event. before we begin i want to encourage you all to check out our lineup of upcoming virtual events by visiting powell's.com. when affirming upcoming events were looking for to is tiffany cross in conversation with -- about her new book say it lighter, black voters, white narratives and saving our democracy. that's next friday the 18th. as a plea for member to follow us on twitter, facebook and instagram. tonight we honor to welcome leonard mlodinow and rob paulsen. leonard received his phd in theoretical physics from university of california at

berkeley come wasn't alexander fellow at the max planck institute and was on the faculty of telephone institute of technology. his previous books include bestsellers the grand design, and a briefer history of time both with stephen hawking can subliminal which was a winner of the literary science writing award, , and what of the worldviews with deepak chopra as well as elastic window, rainbow and upright thinkers. he joins us this evening for a conversation about his new book "stephen hawking: a memoir of friendship and physics" one of the most influential physicists of our time stephen hawking touched the lives of millions. recall usually two decades as his collaborator and friend, lend it brings his complex man into focus in unique and deeply personal portrayal. he puts us in the room as

hocking indulges his passion for white and cori come shares his feelings and grapples with the deep questions of philosophy and physics. mlodinow deeply affecting account of friendship teaches us not just about the nature and practice of physics also about life and the human capacity to overcome daunting obstacles. mlodinow is doing to conversation today by voice actor rob paulsen who is been a voice actor for nearly three decades and is the voice of pinky from pinky and the brain, raffaello donatelli from teenage mutant ninja turtles, and carl from jimmy neutron he has won any network, a peabody award and three in the awards for his voice acting. his memoir voice lessons was released last year ironically a method uses his voice work on itself with throat cancer but he has thankfully recovered and is now the spokesperson for the

oral head and neck cancer awareness program. this evenings event will include a q&a. please use a q&a button at the bottom of your screen if you'd like to ask a question. if someone has tapped a question you'd like to to have the answer to please a vote that particulr question by clicking the thumbs up button. most importantly please consider supporting leonard and felt the fragility of copy of his new book. a link to purchase the book will be shared in the chat in a couple of minutes. leonard, robin, such a pleasure to welcome you both. thank you for joining us. >> great pleasure. thank you. well said. as a armchair physicist who some a mix of living doing essentially what got me trouble in high school, i can tell you that this is a marvelous book and so thank you very much leonard letting the lower your standards with respect to

speakers. thanks for having the onboard. >> thanks for doing this, rob. i look for to the discuion. >> my pleasure. >> not the usual dry physics. >> full disclosure, your fabulous really handsome genius child nikolai helps me with my own social media marketing, and the apple didn't fall farrom the tree, , my friend. he's a delightful bright smart limit and i'm grateful to have my life so thank you. well done. just in case there are folks who are watching who are transfixed but may not be aware of stephen hawking, as others, could you briefly explain to us what stephen hawkins place is in physics come in history of physics? >> well, stephen went to school in the '60s, so i went to oxrd first and then went to

graduatechool at cambridge. that's where he fell ill. he had a revelation after that whene felt tell which was before he was kind o a goof off. due to his illss he found a purpose in life, some kind of meaning in his life. he decided youant to dedicate his last years to answering som fundamental questions about our existence. it was basically why are we here? i give a get request how to the universe get your? why is it the wayt is? those in the questions people are asking very much in the 1960s. the systems come he didn't even ask -- haight-ashbury in berkeley -- [talking over each other] >> and the areas he chose to study to address those questions were first one is very obvio,

the early universe, beginning of the universe and the other is a black hole. less obvious. but n many people interested in those areasither back in because people felt you couldn't ever observed those. physics was anxperimental sites and people thought you can't go back to theeginning of the universe and we will never find the black hole. so why study them theoretically? it turned out as a footnote that as technology advanced we can study those things. we know that very famous picture from just a fewears ago of a black coal effect it seemed like we would never get there. there were some people who working on it but in a con physicist richard simons descption he said there were a bunch of dopes that were going to the comfort of thatade his blood well because it was so frustrating withhe quality of the research. so it was that kind of area

stephen walked in. stephen, with his yearning to answer these action special questions startedtudying in the 1960s and made great progress studying the universe and the black hole through einstein general theoryf relativity. it's important out he did not apply quantum theory to that so it just took einstein theory of -- he made great progress of understanding the early universe and black hes. later in the 1970s he soad to apply quantum theory and made some very exciting advances. he realize that you can't ignore quantum tory in those areas as people have been doing. he found rests. the sum total of all this in his work aer that was he took his field of cosmology, the study of the early unirse, a black holes which is related to that, and he took from a backwater

nothing kilometer one ofhe hottest fields inhysics. in hisombining of general relativity quantum theory he was a pioneer in really what is probably come in loong forward is the holy grail of physics, which is uniting the thirdf grappling with quantum three. theory. by including that he was a pine and made great steps into how we can think about that. we still haven't de it, and he lifted the study of black holes to make anotherespectable but very popular. >> my goodness. >> sorry for the long awer. >> no, in fact, you are rht and we now know stephen had a terrific movie made about it which i think they may have won an oscar. my suspicion having grown up, the physicists when i grew up was like most, albert einstein. have a feeling that w stephen

essentially thought of as like the next physicist rockstar? was he another einstein? >> he was not another einstein. he was kind of rolled his eyes and smiled wn people said that. who wants to have that are to live up to? that's a pretty high bar. even einstein for most of his group wasn't an einstein. einstein had most of his major discoveries theirst 15 years of his career. stephen was aeader, one of the best of his generation, one of the leade of his generation. i don't think we should be trying to qntify that but i think that's a good song description of him and one that he would agree with. >> right. if i'm not mistaken, einstein came up with his energy equals

mass times the speed of lightsquared theory at 25. >> yes. that was the consequence, interesting people misunderstand how physics works. you don't sit there and get a brilliant idea tha he equals mc squared and then tell other people and say that make sense. special relatively and that was based on certain principles particular the speed of light is co because that was something that was implied by worng 1860s. investigating that in building a theory of austing newtons law to take into account he developed theory special rotelle one of the consequences when things he discovered lighting of the three is oh, my gosh come his theory o the equals mc square. it became its own sort of a

metaphor for cool stuff. i remember we are theame page ae and opening of the twilight zone had that equals mc squared and it became -- >> that was back in the 1920s, wasn't. >> was able t notice but i was entertained at the last supper. jesus, what a party. i know this because -- >> that's all i have to say left expert you are a b boy. >> follow the leader. >>hat's right. i know this because of her the book. how did you first meet stephen? >> while, he read my first two books and one was called useless window about kurt states and what he really means and how over the centuries the idea developed, how it's usedn physics and that was a very actually important topic for stephen. then he read my second book

which was search for beauty in physics and in life and that was in the more about my relaonship with the great -- [inaudible] while i was at caltech in my 20s. he liked those books and is oking for someone to write with. i think he wanted someone with a sense of humor and someone who's writing his life. most of the one some who understood physics. i guess he decided i fit that. when did i just get a call from an agent, stephen hawking called. that happened. this is a bizarre question, but would you like to write a book? are you kidding me? >> i can say again, having read the book, i make my living in the funny busess. you do have an excellent sense of humor, leonard, and he comes across beautifully in the book. it truly does. you mentioned the sort of dryness the physics, like you

have found a way and clearly mr. hocking had a wicked sense of humor, , too, and you were ableo translate that to the reader. it really is that t effect i i know you begin working with stephen when he was sort of in his full-blown sclerosis, lou gehrig's disease. what surprised you witnessing firsthand how stephen worked? was anything that made you go,, this is pretty remarkable? in addition to the fact he was doing what he was doing and his physical state >> well, it's really fascinating. again, i don't want to get too long with this answer but -- >> it's your book, man. >> physics, synthesis can be looked at in two differe ways. one is algebraically with equations, or analysis, mathematical term.

of the weight is geometrically. you have to understand all but most of what most people do is done usi equations. stephen obviously can't do that. he can't, couldn't write, couldn't move. he did have an amazing memory where he cld do some that way, just like a grand masr chess player, 20 people blindfolded. he was not quick honesty but remember each ge and what to do and always listen in on. i can't play one ge of chess. these guys have something. he did have that ability but are still difficult for tm and put them at a disadvantage, as opposedo the physicist who could write downheir equations. whitey did which really surprised me, i didn't learn for a while but he learned a new way of doing physics. he did this in in a geometric

approach present equatns approach. he worked on his own language of geometry to treat the problems he was treating so he could solve problems and get ideas and analyze situations that were of terest to h. he had to use pictures. light beings and particle beams of black holes of all this and he's analyzing how they look and how they're interacting using pictures, using geometric relationship in his head. his friend said tt was his superpower. because he could, by doing that, not only wase avoiding his handic of not writing equations but he actuall had a new ale to look at things that other physicist didn't have that allowed him to make discoveries and iights of the physicist didn't because it didn't he that approach. he managed to take the disability entered into an

advanced. >> in the book you cite how we hear people who are sightless, find a way to really enhance their sense of hearing or smell or taste but whatever. do you feel ultimately that, , r maybe even stephen witt suggested this. do you feel ultimately his debilitating illness endedp being something that actually heed him in his discipline? >> he told me that it did. he told me that, first as it mentioned a geek them meaning and purpose. physics is a very hard subject. u have to put in. long hours all alone. california's growing right now, so was oregon but in an old time when it is not, you want to go outside and take a walk but

instead you stay home. you wanto see your family or friends but no, you worked 12 hours a day for months every day me just to finish your work. the first thing different is it gave him that drive, to answer these questions. but so that w like -- if you think of the meaning, giving the focu eliminating distractions -- eliminatingistractions and though i am to focus so long and so hard with a big advantage to them. even apa from his geometric thinking. he would not have done as well if he had not had that disability. >> that's interesting especially you being celebrated a profic author. i have written one book and i had a gentleman help me. the physicists go through what a layperson would call a bite of block that is to say, when you

are working on a theory or you're working on something your poulating, you have your own premises you a working on, do you find you can go through writer's block? you mention you are alone. are the points at which is a i'm stuck, i jus -- >> that's why i i wrotehe book. not just for physics but for his personal lif i don't like the analogy o an phics or about stephen. i wrote the book to really expose how we do psics but also how he lived h life every day. what was his lifelike. yes physicist don't just like in the movies, you don't look into a fireplace in the answer comes, boom. >> we would all be physicist. >> coming up with great theories. but it's very difficult.

and yes, richard had very long periods of non-productity and he thought teaching satan because in those times he was still teaching his courses and he would count on tching and that would fulfill him and take at this time. becausee's waiting for some idea. this happens both while you're doing a problem in between problems. between problems you sitting there going okay, i just wrote a par or maybe ten papers and maybe on one topic with three topics, i had a lot of ideas but i've run out of ideas for i have done all the papers i had topic or what should it work on now? sometime just something in the back of your head you are curious about and you just bought and sometimes you don't. physicist, , is sitting there le a writer w does notebook to write next. while you're doing about you all some minor crisis like that beuse you are going okay,

need to get from here to there to answer the question i'm trying to answern this research, and you go, i think this is how you figure it out. note. you keep biting her head against walls. you go a day or monthome some promising direction and it doesn't work. then you finally get to a point sometimes we have no more ideas. you have gotten to a certain point in your research, you know what you want to show or you have an idea what for you wanto with i at the math isn't working at. so it's full of very frustrating and difficult times. stephen spent, he drove his wife's crazy because when he hit that wall, he would turn wagner up really, really super loud s it annoyed anybody in the house but it would drown o the rest ofhe world are him and he would spend d after day after day so focus on getting past that. spirit good gracious.

that by the way the thing that it sounds like that was part of your mission was to forack of better word humanize stephen are making relatable. and you absolutely nailed that. there were certainly things that no one would know having not been close to him, but you utterly made in somebody that you became your friend, often with the usual frustrations that people have with other people. was there a point at which your work with stephen, the fact that he was wheelchair-bound and was nonverbal that was like not a big deal, it was basically stephen has a different shirt on today, that it really was not an issue, you got used to it? >>hat's a gooduestion, rob, and there's so much inhe

development in the book. the answer is yes. when i first got there to wk with himo cambridge to his office, i felt bad for him becae you could see what discomfort he was in. not necessarily he was in pretty should have been. things happening to him like a bead of sweat going down his forehead that had to wipe away. you remember tha story. >> i do, and that is one o the seminal moments of the book because it is the sort of thing thate can all relate to immediately, and you just take your hand and you go like this. but the way in which you describe your empathy, your, all, my god, that was drive me nuts, or if my nose was peachy. doesn' matter if you are muhammad ali,tephen hawking,

leonard mlodinow or rob paulsen or a guy on the street. the things we all take for granted that all of a sudden it was a central focus of this world class physicist, the way he described that was really remarkab and very impactful. >> thank you. i couldn't understand how he goes to his daysithout being able to do that, and at first i fe sorry for him a lot. but as i got to know that i realized no, don't feel sorry for him. he actuay was quite inspiring to me by the way he handled those things. he changed the way he thought so that it's not that had sweat dripping down or in fitchburg bedtime and he's seping and he wants to turn but has to wait for someone to turn in and all

these oth obstacles and tortures the rest of us with experience in that condition. he learned not to remedy them not to mind then. he took control of his mind and his feelings and you learn not to let them bother him. that's just amazing. that's like the greeks had philosophy which is happiness, true happiness and lasting happiness comes from only within you. it's not from the things you accomplish, material goods or any other person. all that can be taken away and subject to many things beyond your control. self-satisfaction and it's how you feel about yourself and what and your own min stephen really did that. once i realized that that was what was going on, i didn't feel sorry for you anymore and yes, it was a person with a handicap but also a person with reddish hair, blue eyes and other traits of his.

we interacted, i interacted with and without even thinking about that. >> that's what i was mentioning earlier is you really do describe his utter humanity, and you touch on something quite important with respect to stephen and i've experienced it in my own life with my throat cancer a few years ago, and that is the ability to really focus on living in the moment. to really understand that wow, this is pretty tenuous little fragile line on which we walk. it doesn't have to be lou gehrig's disease, but often it requires something to kind of jumpstart your humanity. you think wow, all of a sudden i know what's important. and he, accordingo you, from ur description, was the embodiment of that, that he literally made lemonade every damn day. it was remarkable. >> i reay was. it was one of the great lessons

that i tried to impart, and i admired him very much for that. >> in fact, in that light how would you describe his personality in general? >> an amazing thing. because he could do that, because he would not be beaten down by all these what would for most of us be physical issues, he was able, he was an optimistic person. he had a great sense of humor. he had a greatnergy. when we were going to go around town from one of his cares said letter, let's d some tourist stuff. let's go punting. >> please describe what tt means. >> to me is like a recipe for pping over. it's a very flat, shall the vote and stands in the back kind of like in venice i guess but standing up on a platform. >> and the ve is called a pond

pond. >> when we went, first he showed his face anyone cueing. sure, ce ang. packing him up takes a few minutes for . getting to the van. get specially designed than with theheelchair to walk around and get headed return ia certain way which is difficult. his wheelchair had to be bolted down so there wasn't any rough ride, he wouldn't go flying. that all had the reverse, at the other and head to be carried don't know 20, 30 and even stone steps to the vote. on the vote just getting in, he gets dached from his machine he can't communite from his wheelchair. he's not taken wiltshire on the tr and what it takes is it and what and what takes is the indication down the stairs. >> goodness.

>> unthinking neck ache, neck ache. i think in this returns the if they slip and he goes in the river he obviously can't swim he will drown. i'm stepping in and i lose my balance and almost follow and unthinking speed is all in boat, correct? >> scary. he's laughing at me. he's the one who got in okay. when the lady haso have one, he rolls his eyes left-right there was turn his head to what you want to look at. with a those difficulties and he loved it. he did everything like that. he didn't like his disability stop it. you also as recalled like anybody else, punting and went of strawberries and champagne, and so you have lucrative exhibited udall in his punting. >> i i think i'd class for every

tablespoon yet but that's okay. i fure at the end they could carry me up after him. >> that's right. i don't know how relative his theory is is that feel like $100 million. >> are you pondering what i'm pondering? >> i think so. i thinking. recent sitting outside on my plate which i say max and i thought to myself why does niels bohr you? not bad but kinky. >> i thought you're going to take into a soccer game. >> i could. i i could say it's a great big universe and we're all puny. ..

you being with stephen, are there any particular, without getting too much away, is there a particular moment or two to feel were sort of encapsulating the experience if that's even possible? >> their are so many stories in different directions but i guess i can talk about one time i had a near death experienc. internal bleeding that they couldn't find the source of. when i get back to cambridge the next time, he and i were having dinner and then we started talking. we started talking about what happed to me and we talked about a of his near-death experiences which were i would

say at least oneear. >> i was going to say, numous. >> one of the problems with his disease, he has difficulty breathing. because of that, he was subject to a lot of infections. i think that may have exacerbated. every year or more often, he would be in the hospital with a bug infection. several times his family or cares thought he might not pull through. so we were commiserating a little bit and here's talking about that but then back to physics. nikolai who was mentioned earlier, used to always say basketball was life so i said

physics is life, isn't it? heives me a no and he starts typing and what comes out is, love isife. i thought that was really fitting for the person who was the most famous physicists in the world. that's his humanity coming out. a person who loves other people. >> when i was reading your book, we discussed, i told you how much it really impacted me the fact that he wrote it is love, the meaning o life. it really was. it was profound. there are many instances in the book you kind of spped and we read it and. reporter: it. in the context of whose talking, it is really impactful.

in that life, was he atheist, agnostic? was he some ideas? >> he was an atheist. he didn' like to talk about that in public, you very much did not want to insult anybody or argue against god. people sometimes interpret this book, the argument about book god. we argue that god is not necessary. an argument for god was a supernatural thing that started e universe but stephen's theory, the universe cou start from nothing. that was thessence of that book but we did not say there's no god, we are not arguing against god or pretending to be against god.

i think he was a very spiritual person, i think there's a lot in the book to illustrate that. also, he went to church wit elaine, i know. >> who by the way, a religious woman. >> both his wives and girlfriend at the end for all religus men and he would go to church. so he was not, you don't have to be better with each other. >> you cite in the book, he touched briefly on the grand design was released, i believe you got a phone call from his

secretary who said you got to help us the folks are freaking out. you've written a book disparage god and had to do a little bit of housekeeping. >> well, i knew the book was coming out that day, i was taking my daughter to school and it was 8:00 a.m. here or something. she was very frantic. have you read the times? yes, i read it. i read every day. many people? there are three of them, i don't read that part of the times. she sai you must google this. it's an emergency. we can't handle it. reporters are all calling us, we can't handle all these

interviews. it was 97 interviews, by the way. the headline was, talking : -- first of all, there was a lot of talking, i guess they were out there talking : god did not create the universe. it doesn't matter what we said, this is what they say we said. a lot of people who were upset, i don't think they realized that either. different reporters from different countries other people to know about the book, it was very provocative but if you read the book, you could see we were not saying that but it was a very compelling part of the book

so that was a very stressful time. they would call me, you'd be on the phone for ten minutes with cnn and then i was on fox news and some of them are alike, some of them are attacking you and i was saying, this is a physics book. [laughter] my mother would say look at these. what could be so upsetting in a physics book? >> i like the morning and find out how i make god angry. >> espn, talking about this bo bo, men's health magazine. i don't know what that was about

but it was talked about everywre. >> you expanded your leadership. yeah, we did. at least they heard about the book. it was all based on ms. control. >> before we move on to the questions from the folks watching us, what did your work with stephen teach you about yourself? that is pretty much the question. what did you learn about yourself? >> it gave me perspective. look what he had to go through, you're whining about a headache smashed your car or whatever it is. on a scale one to i can't even move, this is more like a one. i used to go nine, are you kidding me?

now show, i can walk away from it. that's what i needed for myself but i also learned his ability, perspective is one thing but having it not matter to you is even more important. >> i think so too. it truly is a marvelous book, you don't have to be, i make my living doing cartoon voices and it was utterly relatable in readable and really a total joy and there are aspects in the book we can all apply to ourselves. you done good, kid. it really is a hell of a book. we ready to go? it's already 20 minutes to 6:00

in the pacific. i want to make suree -- we want to do that now? is that okayith you? >> that's good with me. >> let me go to the q&a, let's make sure i don't push the wrong button set off an international even. here's one from an honors attendee. one of my favorite people who says you ever intimidated by mr. hawking? i guess right off the bat, after you initial settle down, did you then go oh my god and then all my. >> when i first met him, even the early meeting, you walking and he's so brilliant and it's

like zero. >> will be the judge of that. [laughter] >> and what he does. he said i must be perfect, to. >> that goes witut saying. >> are you concerned that when you started working with them that you would say something that he would perceive as stupid or silly? he called you and i get that what were you saying don't screw thisp, leonard? no that i have that worry but i have to have something something that you might find stupid we

were looking at his current work and i'm reading is papers. i'd ask him a question think maybe i should have that. okay, so we would work together there and then split off and when we were working together, he would write this section and we would e-mail them to each other d read them before we next meet. he went back and forth with each other so one time i just don't get his points. i grewp in santa barbara and

they explained toe what they were doing. i go back and read all of. i go back to cambridge next time and he is reviewing that he's going no, this is wrong. this is wro. it's this way. i'm going, what's? i'm sure i understood it. i don't understand. i was thinking, look. i was talking to jim. it's not what you say. he goes to me, no that's what u say but we changed our mind. no one told me about this. we changed our mind. the research he was doing. >> but he didn't tell you. >> he said i know you are

working on explaining this but it's upside down. >> in fact in the book what i love about your relationship stephen is you are unafraid to discuss in the book your frustration with the most famous physicist of my time as a layperson. you talk about your frustration about a man, if you're going to do this, let's do it. i'm paraphrasing but you are writing together you essentially dropped the ball and you called him on it. that's pretty palsy. >> well, i was pretty frustrat frustrated. i will give anything away but i'm just saying, i will tell the whole story but i was pretty frustrated. even in little things where there were many frustrations, people just walk into his office in the middle of something and

suddenly the talk to him for an hour. this will just take a minute it was more like an hour first i was naïve and i would say come on in for a minute if i said i didn't mind, they would just ignore that. stephen responded just interrupting. sometimes if h didn't want to talk to them, heust ignore them. if we were worki together and they wld say hey leonard, do you mind? here say i don't know, we kind of busy. whatever, they would just come in andsk the question. would not, could you talking to

me. he would look at me and i would say something and he answer me, the guy would just be standing there and eventually they would just walk away. >> well, works for that guy. a great question, my friend i believe a chemistry student, i'm not sure she's going to forgive me but she said did you collaborate on physics problems together? certain aas of physics? >> there was one that i was interested in, why we remember okay, i'll give you a little preamble. the physics are reversible.

you take datan a current system, how everything is moving and laws of physics tell you how it tls you can go forward or backward. so obviously you can tell, i'm not talking about going backwards and going out the do door. things like smoke dissipate but someone walking backward, someon could do that if they want to. you will never see it concentrate into something. that is the physical explanation for the period that is where it

comes from. even thoughhe laws are reversible, if the state did something, it's very special. a very ordered state, a bunch of dominoes and they are standing on a table. they might fall. this way, tha way, there's a million ways to fallut only one way you can stand up just right. not going to pop up wit their initial configuration because it's special. that is kind of what that was but i was wondering psychologically, how does that work? why is it that we remember, given that the laws are

reversible, why is it that we remeer the past but not the future? somehow you would think that might be effective but how does that work? i asked even about that and he told me we had a couple of questions but i told him i was interested in thatnd he says i wrote a paper on that in 1985 or so. [laughter] so i dig up the paper in typical stephen fashion, he was confusing having said something, having proved it. i look at the paper and he indeed says something about that but doesn't give any details or show how it works so i'm really back to square one and a friend of mine, i wrote aaper published a paper explaining at, i think the paper is

called why remember the pt and not the future. anyway, i talked to him about that problem but i didn't work on it directly with him. >> this is fantastic. remember the future. sounds like a led zeppelin album title. there's one, and interesting question. she says what you just said, we changed our mind, really his wife physics feels so out of reach for so many. how difficult is it to take what may be developing findings from scientific research and translate it into something for non- exper? >> first of all, it's pretty subtle that people canead about him and it's very eiting

exciting. you don't always have to read about that at the time. i would say that most popular science books are those aspects of the theory, evolution of t universe that are pretty well agreed upon. there are books on a different genre. to explain those, it's not that much different than explaining something that's very subtle. as long as that, what you are writing about is changing while you are writing. when that happens, it gets difficul and you have to do your best without changing.

so people don't think that. what we do at the end of the, talk about how it might be confirmed, verified and what part it is. >> i must say, that was also one of the things helpful as a layperson. apart from being readable and human, have very appropriate and nicely placed footnotes that explain just what you read in a way that's very understandable for someone like myself and very helpful which is actually, are you sure you didn't get this in advance? this is perfect. catherine comes up with the lovely follow-up question. i just finished the book and enjoyed the physics as well as

the human story. i rest my case. i graded from cornell in 1965 and spent my working career at dpr. you indicated not everything you wrote was completely verified. have there been any major changes since being published in 2010? i presume you're talking about grand design for 2010? >> well, some people ting it out there but the technology and difficulty for support withhat theory in and those ideas, we need better technology with radiation. the afterglow of the big bang, the ia is that there are minute details finding suppting evidence. it just hasn't gotten there yet.

sometimes you have to wait a long time. he was doing black holes in the 60s. as a candidate they were studying in the early 90s, didn't have anything about black holes until just a few years a ago. >> if i'm not mistaken, i don't know exactly specifics but einstein siri of general relativity was proven only a few ars ago. >> you know that. since we're using talking about this in the context, i won't say the first evidence for the observation that confirm a prediction theory that was different from newton siri, it was about four years after.

1919 observation that showed that it confirmed that. there were questions on specific observations. that is what happened then. there have been other ones. gps system everybody uses, it is very interesting. you think of general, a theory that applies generally to a theory that you need to use as opposed to those laws. it speaks to large masses but actually, it affects our lives because you need gps systems, it would be wildly inaccurate.

it's very important. gps systems. just the fact when you type in, when you go to starbucks, your driving, the fact that you get there is einstein. >>hat is the sort of stuff i love about you guys and girls do in your discipline. my grandfather is a physicist and electrical engineer. i remember this very house, standing with my first generation ipad a few yea ago watching because they had already dropped a camera to watch the landing. my genius grandfather came back and saw me standing there with the device this big didn't heat up with no cords, no plug and i

said i'm watching the surface of mars, this is really authentically morning and i would say that's witchcraft so i loved being aware of i'm holding this device in my hand, i can find starbucks in mongolia. i love that you pointed that out. thank you very much for this opportunity but there is something h wrote in the book that i love so much. obviously i presume it's based on other writings but it turns out that isaac newton was a. i love that. i thought how d we know that? >> we know a lot about newton. a lot of people have written about his papers and books, he was actually a quarter. he could have been on reality,

he kept every grocery list he ever wrote. xes and boxes of his work, his writings. we know a lot about newton. >> that was one of the things that made me laugh out loud because you wrote that he is a -- i just love that. isaac, shut your mouth. equal and opposite reaction, blah, blah, blah. anyway. i know we are pretty much -- >> thank you. >> i'll tell you what,e recalled. these are the countries tt have come up since it was written. bosnia, soviet uon [singing] has extent, hey! [singing]

serbia [singing] ukraine [singing] goodbye [singg] >> thank you so much. i want to thank you all for joining us. be sure to pick up a copy of this book and we hope to see you again very soon. >> book tv continues now on c-span2. television for serious readers. ♪ >> history and biography altered by wells fargo. ♪