Interesting review of Prof Hawking and Prof Mlodinow’s new book, The Grand Design, in the Economist…

Understanding the universe: Order of creation | The Economist: “The authors may be in this enviable state of enlightenment, but most readers will not have a clue what they are on about. Some physics fans will enjoy ‘The Grand Design’ nonetheless. The problem is not that the book is technically rigorous—like ‘A Brief History of Time’, it has no formulae—but because whenever the going threatens to get tough, the authors retreat into hand-waving, and move briskly on to the next awe-inspiring notion. Anyone who can follow their closing paragraphs on the relation between negative gravitational energy and the creation of the universe probably knows it all already. This is physics by sound-bite.”

I was tempted to buy this earlier, but not so sure now.