Stephen Hawking

STEPHEN HAWKING: EARTHBOUND SPACE EXPLORER

Stephen Hawking was a stalwart of theoretical physics and cosmology. He rose to popular prominence with his 1988 best-selling book “A Brief History in Time” before he died of ALS on March 14, 2018. His theories on black holes and relativity made him famous in his field but his book made him a household name.

Hawking was born in Oxford, England, on Jan. 8, 1942. He was studied physics at University College in Oxford and later at Trinity Hall in Cambridge where he earned his Ph.D. He was elected a fellow at Gonville and Caius College in Cambridge. It was during this time he was diagnosed with the ailment that would confine him to a wheelchair, steel his voice and eventually take his life — ALS, which is also known in the U.S. as Lou Gehrig’s Disease.

BLACK HOLE THEORY

Hawking devised theories of black holes that incorporated the concept of relativity. In short, he said black holes formed as a result of the big bang, an astronomical event that created particles the size of tiny protons with a billion tons of mass. Called mini black holes, they are ruled by the complex laws of relativity and quantum mechanics. Hawking theorized that black holes emit subatomic particles that deplete the structure of energy and eventually explode. His work in this area was significant to science because it showed the relationship between thermodynamics and quantum mechanics. His work resulted in honors over the years from being named the youngest fellow of the Royal Society in 1974 to the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009.

“A BRIEF HISTORY OF TIME”

Hawking best-selling “A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes” garnered him fame outside of academia. The book was written so anyone can engage in cosmology, also known as the study of the universe. Readers did not need advanced degrees to comprehend the theoretical concepts that surround the creation, development and the eventual fate of our universe. The book serves as a field guide of sorts that explains our place in space. Among some of the ideas he discusses are time, black holes, tiny particles known as quarks and a myriad of other subjects. The book aims to illustrate the physical laws that govern the universe and that science should pursue is to further understand these laws. “A Brief History in Time” also questions the role of God in these pursuits. The book sold more than 10 million copies in 20 years and is translated into 35 languages.This was not his only book. There were seven in all, three written before 1988 and three after, though none of them reached the success of “A Brief History of Time.” His first, “The Large scale Structure of Space-Time,” was written in 1973 with co-author G.F.R. Ellis.

ALS

Hawking was diagnosed with ALS when he was 21 years old. He lived with the condition for more than half a century which makes him an anomaly. Normally, patients are diagnosed with the disease in their 50’s. Being diagnosed so young, however, may have shown the theoretical physicist was an outlier when it came to ALS. He may have retained respiratory and gastronomical functions often robbed from other patients by the disease. This may be the reason he was able to live so long, according to neurologists that looked into his case, though never treated him. Hawking had aids such as handheld speech-generating devices for years but when paralysis took over his hands the device was modified to work with a cheek muscle. He was able to teach with ALS and never let it slow him down on his pursuits, from exploring concepts such as a second Earth to the search for extraterrestrial life.

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