Comprising of thirteen essays and one remarkable extended interview broadcast over the BBC on Christmas day 1992, the content of BLACK HOLES AND BABY UNIVERSES ranges from the autobiographical to the purely scientific. Building on the phenomenally bestselling A BRIEF HISTORY OF TIME, Stephen Hawking discusses imaginary time, how black holes can give birth to baby universes, and scientists' efforts to find a complete unified theory that would predict everything in the universe, a concept that he believes will come to seem as natural to the next generation as the idea that the world is round.

With the great unfolding mysteries of the universe as a backdrop, Stephen Hawking also reflects on free will, the value of life, and his perceptions of death. He looks at how science theory converges with--and diverges from--science fiction, as well as how science fact interfaces with our own lives.

Severely disabled by ALS--Lou Gehrig's disease--Hawking describes the way in which this has affected but not constrained his personal and intellectual life: from the special computer technology that lets him translate his thoughts into words and his words into sounds, enabling him to write and speak, to the process of evolving his ideas, teaching his students, and working with his colleagues.

Using his characteristic mastery of language, his sense of humor, his commitment to plain speaking, and his disdain for pompousness, Stephen Hawking invites us in this book to know him better and to share his passion for the voyage of intellect and imagination that has opened new ways to understanding the very nature of the universe.