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t. e. Stephen William Hawking (8 January 1942 – 14 March 2018) was an English theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and author who was director of research at the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology at the University of Cambridge. [6][17][18] Between 1979 and 2009, he was the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge, widely viewed as one of ...
- Overview
- 1. Doctors told him he wouldn’t live past his early 20s
- 2. He was a wild wheelchair driver
- 3. He made lots of scientific bets, even though he kept losing them
- 4. Some of his scientific theories were controversial at first
- 5. Artificial intelligence made him uneasy
- 6. He had a tumultuous relationship with his first wife
- 7. He wrote five children’s books with his daughter Lucy
Little known facts about the astronomical life of author, cosmologist and physicist Stephen Hawking.
Renowned physicist Stephen Hawking died on March 14, 2018—also known as Pi Day—at age 76. The scientist stands out for his significant contributions to the field of cosmology, the study of the origin and development of the universe. During his career, Hawking became a cultural icon who tried to make scientific concepts accessible to the wider community.
His 1988 book, A Brief History of Time, set a Guinness World Record by staying on the Sunday Times best-seller list for four and a half years. Still, the book’s discussion of concepts like time, space, black holes, and the Big Bang proved to be a bit complex for non-scientists, and Hawking liked to joke that it was the least-read, most-purchased book in history. That’s why in 2005, he published a more accessible version of the original called A Briefer History of Time.
Hawking was so well-known that during his lifetime, he appeared on TV shows like Star Trek, The Simpsons, The Big Bang Theory, and Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. In addition, actor Eddie Redmayne won an Oscar for his portrayal of Hawking in The Theory of Everything. But despite his popularity, there’s still a lot you might not know about him.
Hawking was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrig’s disease, when he was only 21. ALS affects the nerve cells involved in voluntary muscle movement, decreasing a person’s ability to move and speak over time. Usually, symptoms develop after age 50, and lead to death within a few months or years.
So when doctors diagnosed Hawking with ALS at the extremely young age of 21, the predicted he would only live a couple of years. Instead, he lived for 55 more years.
Hawking began using crutches after his diagnosis in the ‘60s, and resisted transitioning to a wheelchair. But once he started, he was reportedly a pretty wild driver.
“There’s an apocryphal story out there—I don’t know if it’s true—that he actually ran over Prince Charles’ toes,” says Kristine M. Larsen, a professor astronomy at Central Connecticut State University and author of Stephen Hawking: A Biography.
Hawking is known for his theoretical contributions to science. But like any scientist, he didn’t always get everything right the first time; and he had a reputation for placing and losing bets on scientific concepts.
In 1975, he bet physicist Kip Thorne a Penthouse subscription that an astronomical object known as Cygnus X-1 was not a black hole. Later, he also bet someone an encyclopedia over Hawking’s claim that information gets lost in black holes, and wagered $100 that no one would ever discover the Higgs boson. Eventually, he lost all three of these bets.
Despite these misplaced bets, Hawkins did get a lot of things right.
“Among his first theoretical discoveries was his prediction that black holes should radiate,” Larsen says. “But when he first came up with this idea and presented it to his colleagues, they thought it was rubbish.”
However, once his calculations for this theory went through scientific peer-review, “they found that yes, this is what the laws of physics as we understand them predict,” she says. “That black holes under the right circumstances should evaporate, should radiate.”
This scientific concept is now known as “Hawking radiation,” and remains one of his biggest contributions to cosmology.
Hawking believed that developing better technology was imperative for humans’ survival. But he was also very concerned about the pursuit of artificial intelligence, or A.I.
“Alongside the benefits, A.I. will also bring dangers, like powerful autonomous weapons, or new ways for the few to oppress the many,” he said in 2014 at the launch for the Centre for the Future of Intelligence at Cambridge University.
“In the future, A.I. could develop a will of its own—a will that is in conflict with ours,” he continued. “The rise of powerful A.I. will be either the best, or the worst thing, ever to happen to humanity. We do not yet know which.”
The subject was personal for Hawking because, despite his fears about where A.I. would lead, he benefited greatly from advances in the field. Starting in 2008, Hawking communicated by tensing his cheek. Using technology that could detect these cheek movements, a machine learning algorithm translated these into sound, gradually getting better and quicker at translating as it learned from Hawking’s speech patterns.
When The Theory of Everything debuted in 2014, it received some criticism for its portrayal of Hawking’s marriage to his first wife, Jane Wilde. Based on Wilde’s writing about her life and marriage, the film offered a romantic, sentimental portrait of a woman who made sacrifices for her husband in the face of a very serious disease.
In real life, things were a bit more complicated. Jane took on the task of caring for her husband along with three children as Hawking refused to talk with her about his illness. At one point, she described him as “a child possessed of a massive and fractious ego.”
In addition to his many books for adults, Hawking wrote several children’s books with his daughter, Lucy, that combine science and adventure.
These books all focus on a young boy named George, who learns about the universe by traveling around it. In the most recent one, George and the Blue Moon, George enters a Mars training program, “fighting for survival in what feels like the Hunger Games set on the red planet,” according to Hawking’s own description.
- Stephen William Hawking was born in Oxford, England during World War II on January 8, 1942, making his zodiac sign the Capricorn.
- His birthday fell on the exact day that physicist and astronomer Galileo Galilei‘s death occurred 300 years prior, on January 8 in 1642.
- Both of Hawking’s parents, named Isobel and Frank Hawking, attended the University of Oxford. His mother took on a few different jobs following her graduation but prior to his birth, while his father worked as a research biologist.
- It was not immediately apparent that Hawking was a genius. At the age of 9, his grades were among the worst in his entire class. After working to improve his grades, Hawking was still only regarded as being average.
Jul 17, 2024 · In 1962, he graduated with honors in natural science and went on to attend Trinity Hall at the University of Cambridge for a Ph.D. in cosmology. In 1968, Hawking became a member of the Institute ...
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8 Jan 1942 A very normal young man. Hawking was born on 8 January 1942 and grew up in St Albans, the eldest of four siblings. His father was a research biologist and his mother a medical research ...
British Scientists. Childhood & Early Life. Stephen Hawking was born on January 8, 1942, in Oxford, England, to Frank and Isobel Hawking. His father was a medical researcher. He belonged to a family of well educated people. His mother was one of the first female students to have graduated from the Oxford University.
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Dec 1, 2021 · Delve into the life and theories of Stephen Hawking; one of the greatest theoretical physicists in history. ... 1998) was first published in 1988 and became an international bestseller. It has ...
