Cambridge

The English university where Hawking teaches.

Special Relativity

The theory of physics that holds that no absolute well-defined state of rest exists.

General Relativity

The theory that brings together special relativity and Newton's laws of gravity and understands gravity as a function of a single fabric of space and time known as spacetime.

Quantum Mechanics

The principles which describe reality at the smallest levels of nature. It has also had a revolutionary impact on how scientists understand reality.

Quantum Gravity

That part of theoretical physics which tries to combine quantum mechanics and general relativity into one theory.

P-Branes

A p-brane is a mathematical idea that is extended into space and that represents a precise number of dimensions. Superstrings are 1-branes, having only length, but 2-branes are membranes. These branes extend throughout spacetime.

The No-Boundary Condition

Hawking and Hartle has suggested that spacetime curves back in on itself...