Brief History of Time app from Transworld

Transworld is launching an interactive app for Professor Stephen Hawking’s 1988 book A Brief History of Time, including new updates from its author.

"Stephen Hawking’s Pocket Universe: A Brief History of Time Revisited" is due for release on the iPhone on 16th September priced at £5.99.

The app, created in partnership with London-based games studio Preloaded, will offer both "a new accessible format" for the book and include updates from Professor Hawking himself on topics ranging from dark energy to the information paradox.

It will arrange ideas from A Brief History of Time into six topics that underpin three of Hawking’s key accomplishments as a physicist - his Singularity Theorems with Roger Penrose, "Hawking Radiation", and his No Boundary Proposal - meanwhile using "cutting-edge design" to "make the complex appear simple" and illustration to reinforce the text's meaning and aid understanding.

The publishers hopes the app will appeal to a "brand new audience", in particular "a generation of smart phone users who expect important and beautiful content that they can carry in their pocket". 

A Brief History of Time, Professor Hawking’s best known work, published with Transworld in 1988, since which time it has been published in 40 languages and sold more than 11m copies worldwide. The book was last revised in 1996.

Professor Hawking commented: "I’m delighted that my original text is getting a new lease of life in the form of an app. I have seen the plans and I’m excited to see the final product. I hope the app will bring my work to a whole new generation of people looking to find out how it all began."

Phil Stuart, creative director for Preloaded, said: "Physics isn't just outer space and cold metal machinery, it's also colour and flow, and we wanted our app to reflect that - with a treatment that appeals to people who appreciate visual art as well as science and engineering." 

Transworld managing director Larry Finlay said: "A Brief History of Time is one of the most important, landmark books it’s been our privilege to publish. Publishing the app, and with new updated material from Stephen Hawking, is so exciting. I can’t wait to use it myself – like many other non-scientists, I might now finally begin to understand Stephen’s ground-breaking work!"