What is the nature of the universe that we live in? This is a question that has exercised philosophers and scientists for as long as people have been able to think. Almost everyone has asked it at one time or another, in one form or another. It is hard to imagine a more fundamental question. The phenomenal success of Stephen Hawking's first popular book, A brief history of time, first published in 1988, testifies to the hunger for understanding that is part of the human condition.
The universe in a nutshell is billed as "the inspiring sequel to A brief history of time". It is of course not really a sequel at all; it is rather, as Hawking might put it, orthogonal to the earlier book. A brief history presented the best picture of the Universe we had at the time. It examined the overall shape of the universe (is it expanding? How did it begin, and what is its ultimate fate? What are the boundary conditions that describe it?) and aimed at the broad picture rather than detailed exposition.
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