A Brief History of Time--------------------------------------------------In the ten years since its publication in 1988, Stephen Hawking's classicwork has become a landmark volume in scientific writing, with morethan nine million copies in forty languages sold worldwide. That editionwas on the cutting edge of what was then known about the origins andnature of the universe. But the intervening years have seen extraordinaryadvances in the technology of observing both the micro- and the macrocosmicworlds. These observations have confirmed many of Professor Hawking'stheoretical predictions in the first edition of his book, includingthe recent discoveries of the Cosmic Background Explorer satellite(COBE), which probed back in time to within 300,000 years of the universe'sbeginning and revealed wrinkles in the fabric of space-time that hehad projected. Eager to bring to his original text the new knowledgerevealed by these observations, as well as his own recent research,Professor Hawking has prepared a new introduction to the book, writtenan entirely new chapter on wormholes and time travel, and updated thechapters throughout.--------------------------------------------------Author Biography: In 1963, Stephen Hawking contracted motor neuronedisease and was given two years to live. Yet he went on to Cambridgeto become a brilliant researcher and Professorial Fellow at Gonvilleand Caius College. Since 1979 he has held the post of Lucasian Professorof Mathematics and Theoretical Physics at Cambridge, the chair heldby Isaac Newton in 1663. Professor Hawking has over a dozen honorarydegrees, was awarded the CBE in 1982. He is a fellow of the Royal Societyand a Member of the US National Academy of Science.