Stephen
Hawking
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Born
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Stephen William Hawking
8 January 1942 Oxford, |
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Nationality
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Fields
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Institutions
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Other academic advisors
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Doctoral students
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Bruce Allen
Raphael Bousso Fay Dowker Malcolm Perry Bernard Carr Gary Gibbons Harvey Reall Don Page Tim Prestidge Raymond Laflamme Julian Luttrell |
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Known for
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Influences
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Notable awards
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Prince of Asturias Award (1989)
Copley Medal (2006) Presidential Medal of Freedom (2009) |
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Signature
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Hawking was the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge for thirty years, taking up the post in 1979 and retiring on 1 October 2009. He is also a Fellow of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge and a Distinguished Research Chair at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo, Ontario.
He is known for his contributions to the fields of
cosmology and
quantum
gravity, especially in the context of
He has also achieved success with works
of popular science in which he discusses his own
theories and cosmology in general; these include the runaway best seller A Brief History of Time, which stayed
on the British Sunday Times bestsellers list for a
record-breaking 237 weeks. Hawking's key scientific works to date have included providing, with Roger Penrose, theorems regarding singularities in the framework of general relativity, and the theoretical prediction that black holes should emit radiation, which is today known as Hawking radiation (or sometimes as Bekenstein-Hawking radiation).
Hawking has a neuro-muscular dystrophy that is related to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a condition that has progressed over the years and has left him almost completely paralysed.
Early life and education
When asked later to name a teacher who had
inspired him, Hawking named his Mathematics teacher, Dikran
Tahta.Once at University College, Hawking specialised in physics. His interests during this time were in thermodynamics, relativity, and quantum mechanics.
His physics tutor, Robert Berman, later said in The New York Times Magazine:
It was only necessary for him to know that
something could be done, and he could do it without looking to see how other
people did it. [...] He didn't have very many books, and he didn't take notes.
Of course, his mind was completely different from all of his contemporaries.
Hawking
was passing, but his unimpressive study habits resulted in a final examination
score on the borderline between first and second class honours, making an
"oral examination" necessary. Berman said of the oral examination:
And of course the examiners then were intelligent
enough to realize they were talking to someone far more clever than most of
themselves.
Career in theoretical physics
Hawking's
achievements were made despite the increasing paralysis caused by the ALS. By
1974, he was unable to feed himself or get out of bed. His speech became
slurred so that he could only be understood by people who knew him well. In
1985, he caught pneumonia and had to have a tracheotomy,
which made him unable to speak at all. A Cambridge scientist built a device
that enables Hawking to write onto a computer with small movements of his body,
and then have a voice synthesizer speak what he has typed.[16]
Research fields
Hawking's
principal fields of research are theoretical cosmology and quantum
gravity.
Professor Stephen Hawking in Cambridge.
In the
late 1960s, he and his Cambridge friend and colleague, Roger
Penrose, applied a new, complex mathematical model they had created from Albert
Einstein's general theory of relativity. This
led, in 1970, to Hawking proving the first of many singularity theorems; such
theorems provide a set of sufficient conditions for the existence of a singularity in space-time.
This work showed that, far from being mathematical curiosities which appear
only in special cases, singularities are a fairly generic feature of general relativity. He supplied a mathematical proof, along with Brandon Carter, Werner Israel and D. Robinson, of John Wheeler's "No-Hair Theorem" – namely, that any black hole is fully described by the three properties of mass, angular momentum, and electric charge.
Hawking also suggested that, upon analysis of gamma ray emissions, after the Big Bang, primordial mini black holes were formed. With Bardeen and Carter, he proposed the four laws of black hole mechanics, drawing an analogy with thermodynamics.
In 1974, he calculated that black holes should thermally create and emit subatomic particles, known today as Hawking radiation, until they exhaust their energy and evaporate.
In collaboration with Jim Hartle, Hawking developed a model in which the universe had no boundary in space-time, replacing the initial singularity of the classical Big Bang models with a region akin to the North Pole: one cannot travel north of the North Pole, as there is no boundary. While originally the no-boundary proposal predicted a closed universe, discussions with Neil Turok led to the realisation that the no-boundary proposal is also consistent with a universe which is not closed.
Hawking's many other scientific investigations
have included
1.
the
study of quantum cosmology,
2.
cosmic
inflation,
3.
helium production
in anisotropic
Big Bang universes,
4.
large
N cosmology,
5.
the density
matrix of the universe,
6.
topology and
structure of the universe,
7.
baby
universes,
8.
Yang-Mills instantons
and
9.
the S matrix,
10. anti de Sitter space,
11. quantum entanglement and entropy,
12. the nature of space and time, including
13. the arrow
of time,
14. spacetime
foam,
15. string
theory,
16. supergravity,
17. Euclidean
quantum gravity,
18. the gravitational
Hamiltonian,
19. Brans-Dicke
and
20. Hoyle-Narlikar
theories of
21. gravitation,
22. gravitational radiation, and
23. wormholes.
At a George Washington University lecture
in honour of NASA's
50th anniversary, Professor Hawking
theorised on the existence of extraterrestrial life, believing that
"primitive life is very common and intelligent life is fairly rare."
Losing an old bet
U.S. President Barack Obama talks with Stephen Hawking in the Blue Room of the White House
before a ceremony presenting him and 15 others the Presidential Medal of Freedom on Aug.
12, 2009. The Medal of Freedom is the nation's highest civilian honour.
Hawking
was in the news in July 2004 for presenting a new theory about black holes
which goes against his own long-held belief about their behaviour, thus losing
a bet he made with Kip Thorne
and John
Preskill of Caltech.
Classically, it can be shown that information crossing the event
horizon of a black hole is lost to our universe, and that thus all black
holes are identical beyond their mass, electrical
charge and angular velocity (the "no
hair theorem"). The problem with this theorem is that it implies the
black hole will emit the same radiation regardless of what goes into it, and as
a consequence that if a pure quantum
state is thrown into a black hole, an "ordinary" mixed state will
be returned. This runs counter to the rules of quantum mechanics and is known
as the black hole information paradox.
Mankind's future in space
At the
50th Anniversary of NASA
in 2008, Hawking gave a keynote speech on the final frontier exhorting and
inspiring the space technology community on why we (the human race) explore
space.[21]At the celebration of his 65th birthday on 8 January 2007, Hawking announced his plan to take a zero-gravity flight in 2007 to prepare for a sub-orbital spaceflight in 2009 on Virgin Galactic's space service. Billionaire Richard Branson pledged to pay all expenses for the latter, costing an estimated £100,000.[22] Stephen Hawking's zero-gravity flight in a "Vomit Comet" of Zero Gravity Corporation, during which he experienced weightlessness eight times, took place on 26 April 2007.[23] He became the first quadriplegic to float in zero-gravity. This was the first time in 40 years that he moved freely, without his wheelchair. The fee is normally US$3,750 for 10–15 plunges, but Hawking was not required to pay the fee. A bit of a futurist,[24] Hawking was quoted before the flight saying:
Many people have asked me why I am taking this flight. I am doing it for many reasons. First of all, I believe that life on Earth is at an ever-increasing risk of being wiped out by a disaster such as sudden nuclear war, a genetically engineered virus, or other dangers. I think the human race has no future if it doesn't go into space. I therefore want to encourage public interest in space.[25]
In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, he suggested that space was the Earth's long term hope.[26] He continued this theme at a 2008 Charlie Rose interview.[27]
Illness
Hawking on 5 May 2006, during the press conference at the Bibliothèque nationale de France
to inaugurate the Laboratory of Astronomy and Particles in Paris and the French
release of his work God Created the Integers.
Stephen
Hawking is severely disabled by motor neuron disease also known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (or
ALS). Hawking's illness is markedly different from typical ALS in the fact that
his form of ALS would make for the most protracted case ever documented. A survival
for more than 10 years after diagnosis is uncommon for ALS; the longest
documented durations are 32 and 39 years and these cases were termed benign
because of the lack of the typical progressive course. When he was young, he enjoyed riding horses and playing with other children. At Oxford, he coxed a rowing team, which, he stated, helped relieve his immense boredom at the university. Symptoms of the disorder first appeared while he was enrolled at Cambridge; he lost his balance and fell down a flight of stairs, hitting his head. Worried that he would lose his genius, he took the Mensa test to verify that his intellectual abilities were intact.[29] The diagnosis of motor neuron disease came when Hawking was 21, shortly before his first marriage, and doctors said he would not survive more than two or three years. Hawking gradually lost the use of his arms, legs, and voice, and as of 2009 has been almost completely paralysed.
During a visit to the research centre CERN in Geneva in 1985, Hawking contracted pneumonia, which in his condition was life-threatening as it further restricted his already limited respiratory capacity. He had an emergency tracheotomy, and as a result lost what remained of his ability to speak. He has since used an electronic voice synthesizer to communicate.
The DECtalk DTC01 voice synthesizer he uses, which has an American accent, is no longer being produced. Asked why he has still kept it after so many years, Hawking mentioned that he has not heard a voice he likes better and that he identifies with it. Hawking is said to be looking for a replacement since, aside from being obsolete, the synthesizer is both large and fragile by current standards. As of mid 2009, he was said to be using NeoSpeech's VoiceText speech synthesizer.
In Hawking's many media appearances, he appears to speak fluently through his synthesizer, but in reality, it is a tedious drawn-out process. Hawking's setup uses a predictive text entry system, which requires only the first few characters in order to auto-complete the word, but as he is only able to use his cheek for data entry, constructing complete sentences takes time. His speeches are prepared in advance, but having a live conversation with him provides insight as to the complexity and work involved. During a Technology, Entertainment, & Design Conference talk, it took him seven minutes to answer a question.[31]
He describes himself as lucky despite his disease. Its slow progression has allowed him time to make influential discoveries and has not hindered him from having, in his own words, "a very attractive family."[32] When his wife, Jane, was asked why she decided to marry a man with a three-year life expectancy, she responded, "Those were the days of atomic gloom and doom, so we all had a rather short life expectancy."
On 20 April 2009, Cambridge University released a statement saying that Hawking was "very ill" with a chest infection, and was admitted to Addenbrooke's Hospital. The following day, it was reported that his new condition is "comfortable" and he should make a full recovery from the infection.
In 2009, Investor's Business Daily (IBD) claimed in an editorial,[36] "People such as scientist Stephen Hawking wouldn't have a chance in the UK, where the National Health Service would say the life of this brilliant man, because of his physical handicaps, is essentially worthless." This caused widespread criticism, as Hawking has in fact lived and worked in the UK his entire life and has relied extensively on NHS treatments. Hawking personally replied that, "I wouldn't be here today if it were not for the NHS," he said. "I have received a large amount of high-quality treatment without which I would not have survived." Eventually, IBD issued a correction,[39] but continued to defend the original editorial, calling the mention of Hawking a "bad example" and accusing those that mentioned their error of "chang[ing] the subject."[40]
As popular science advocate
Hawking
has played himself on many television shows and has been portrayed in many
more. He has played himself on a Red Dwarf
anniversary special, played a hologram of himself on the episode "Descent" of Star Trek: The Next Generation,
appeared in a skit on Late Night with Conan O'Brien,
and appeared on the Discovery Channel special Alien Planet.[41] He has
also played himself in several episodes of The
Simpsons and Futurama. When he was portrayed on episodes of Family Guy,
the voice was actually done by a speech synthesizer on a Macintosh
computer, according to DVD Commentary. He has also appeared in an episode of
the Dilbert
cartoon. His actual synthesizer voice was used on parts of the Pink Floyd
song "Keep Talking" from the 1994 album The
Division Bell, as well as on Turbonegro's
"Intro: The Party Zone" on their 2005 album Party Animals, Wolfsheim's
"Kein Zurück (Oliver Pinelli Mix)". As well as being fictionalised as
nerdcore
hip hop artist MC Hawking, he was impersonated in duet with Richard Cheese on a
cover of "The Girl Is Mine". In 2008, Hawking was the
subject of and featured in the documentary series Stephen Hawking, Master of
the Universe for Channel 4. He was also portrayed in the movie "Superhero
Movie" by Robert Joy. In the TV series Dark Angel Logan's technology savvy
colleague Sebastian is characterized with many
similarities to the actual physicist. In September 2008, Hawking presided over
the unveiling of the 'Chronophage' Corpus
Clock (time eating) clock at Corpus Christi College Cambridge.[42]
Recognition
Acclaim
On 19
December 2007, a statue of Professor Stephen Hawking by renowned late artist Ian Walters
was unveiled at the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology, Cambridge University.[43] In May
2008 the statue of Hawking was unveiled at the African Institute for
Mathematical Sciences in Cape Town. The Stephen W. Hawking Science Museum in San
Salvador, El Salvador is named in honour of Stephen Hawking, citing his
scientific distinction and perseverance in dealing with adversity.[44] Stephen
Hawking Building in Cambridge, opened on 17 April 2007. The building belongs to
Gonville and Caius College
and is used as an undergraduate accommodation and conference facility.[45]
Distinctions
Hawking's
belief that the lay person should have access to his work led him to write a
series of popular science books in addition to his academic work. The first of
these, A Brief History of Time, was published
on 1 April 1988 by Hawking, his family and friends, and some leading
physicists. It surprisingly became a best-seller and was followed by The Universe in a Nutshell (2001).
Both books have remained highly popular all over the world. A collection of
essays titled Black Holes and Baby
Universes (1993) was also popular. His most recent book, A Briefer History
of Time (2005), co-written by Leonard
Mlodinow, aims to update his earlier works and make them accessible to an
even wider audience. He and his daughter, Lucy Hawking, have recently published
a children's book focusing on science that has been described to be "like Harry
Potter, but without the magic." This book is called George's Secret Key to the Universe
and includes information on Hawking
radiation.Hawking is also known for his wit; he is famous for his oft-made statement, "When I hear of Schrödinger's cat, I reach for my pistol." This was a deliberately ironic paraphrase of "Whenever I hear the word culture... I release the safety-catch of my Browning", from the play Schlageter (Act 1, Scene 1) by German playwright and Nazi Poet Laureate Hanns Johst. His wit has both entertained the non-specialist public and helped them to understand complex questions. Asked in October 2005 on the British daytime chat show Richard & Judy, to explain his assertion that the question "What came before the Big Bang?" was meaningless, he compared it to asking "What lies north of the North Pole?"
Hawking has generally avoided talking about politics at length, but he has appeared on a political broadcast for the United Kingdom's Labour Party. He supports the children's charity SOS Children's Villages UK.[46]
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