Famous theoretical physicist and cosmologist Stephen Hawking, without any doubt, is one of the greatest scientific minds in human history. In this fascinating animation for The Guardian’s MadeSimple series, UK-based animation famous studio Scriberia — who also made the magnificent clip for Oliver Burkeman’s Antidote — shrinks Hawking’s vast, mind-bending theories down to just 150 seconds.
Reminiscent in essence of the RSA animations, however much better-executed artistically, the short video is the graphic equal of the art of the soundbite.
Though undeniably delightful, I can’t help but wonder whether such quick visual syntheses of the life’s work of boundless genius might be our era’s version of the aphorisms that Susan Sontag worried commodify wisdom. But let’s go with optimism and hope that, rather than exercises in reductionism, formats like this are, as Neil deGrasse Tyson said of the soundbite, triggers for interest which “set a learning path into motion that becomes self-driven.” In other words, let’s hope this gets more people to read A Brief History of Time, one of these seven timeless reads about time. Watch the video below and learn:
