Stephen Hawking was a reputable theoretical physicist and a cosmologist. He was born on 8 January 1942 in England and died on 18 March 2018 in Cambridge. Hawking gave many theorems regarding the black hole which explains the whole concept of it. He wrote a famous book describing the theorems of black holes, relativity theory, and the theories of time & how it all started with the Big Bang,’ The Brief History of Time.’
Early Life of Stephen Hawking
Hawking was born during World War II. Due to this Britain was not very safe as the threat of Germany was hanging over its head. The safest place back then was Oxford, where his parents thoughtfully gave birth to him. His parents were both very intelligent intellectuals. Hawking’s mother Isobel was a secretary at a medical research institute and his father, Frank, was a medical researcher. Despite being intelligent and job-holding persons they weren’t very rich. He came from a middle-class background.
At the age of 17, Hawking went to Oxford University after getting a scholarship as his parents couldn’t afford a fancy school. His father wanted him to take medicine as his major, but Hawking was fascinated by mathematics and space. During that time Oxford didn’t have any mathematics majors due to which he had to take physics.
In the initial two years at Oxford, Hawking was living a normal university life. He wasn’t very interested in anything but he did complete his academic work. During the third year in university, he started pacing up his career. He started researching and also joined the college board. He completed the undergraduate degree of BA(Hons) in physics and went to study in Cambridge.
Stephen Hawking. Image Credit: newscientist
The Diagnosis
I have lived with the threat of an early death for most of my adult life. It has not depressed me, but it has made me appreciate every minute.
Despite all this, his life had other plans. In 1962, slowly he started noticing unusual things about himself like he stopped speaking in the middle of a sentence or while walking he fell out of nowhere. Such things started happening frequently but Hawking didn’t tell anyone about it.
One day his father noticed this and took him to the hospital. There he was diagnosed with a neurological condition known as ALS, where the brain slowly stopped working eventually leading to paralysis and the organs stopped functioning. The doctors alerted them with a warning that Hawking might not make it any more than two years. He was shattered and fell into severe depression.
During this time he was in love with a lady named Jane, who supported him along with his family. He wondered what if he used the time he had left with instead of surrendering to the disease. Though the disease tried to mess with his brain he showed that when there is a will there is a way. He fought back and locking himself up studied hard. That is when he released theory after theory, and wrote multiple books. Exploring many concepts of time, space, relativity, Big Bang, Black holes, etc.
Personal Life of Stephen Hawking
Knowing that Hawking has only two years to live did not tatter his will to live. Apart from studies and theories he believed he had something more to live for. That was his relationship with his then-future wife Jane Wilde, whom he met in 1962. Aware of his condition of declining physical health and limitations, Jane got engaged to him in 1964 and they got married in 1965. They had three children and their life was going on smoothly.
In 1978, Jonathan Hellyer Jones came into the lives of the Hawking family. Jane got closer to him and started developing feelings. Stephen didn’t object to this as long as it didn’t affect the family. Jane and Hellyer’s relationship remained platonic for a long period. But the celebrity status the view of religion and the intrusion of nurses and assistants in their house affected their relationship. Even then they were running the family fine. Eventually, when Hawking started requiring full-time nurses, he got attached to one of the nurses named Elaine Mason. In 1990 he left his family home and told his family that he was leaving to live with Mason.
He got married to Elaine Mason, after his divorce from Jane in 1995. There were suspicions about his second marriage being inconvenient. He got divorced from Elaine in 2006 and got back closer to his family, children, and Jane. Their life was made into a film known as,’ The Theory of Everything.’
Stephen Hawking’s Career From 1963 onwards
Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change.
Stephen Hawking was studying the Big Bang theory which used to be a topic of debate back then. He wrote a thesis on this topic in 1965, which was approved in 1966. In March 1966, he received a PhD degree in applied mathematics and theoretical physics specializing in general relativity and cosmology.
In 1970, Hawking gave the second law of black hole dynamics in his essay named,’ Black Hole.’ This won the Gravity Research Foundation award in the year 1971, after which he wrote his first book with George Ellis, known as,’ The Large Scale Structure of Space-time.’ This book was published in 1973. His research about the Blackhole showed that a black hole not only sucks matter but also emits radiation, which then came to be known as Hawking Radiation. If the black hole does not suck matter for a long period it might shrink or cease to exist.
Professor Stephen Hawking experiences the freedom of weightlessness during a zero gravity flight. Image Credit: space.com
Hawking’s Career from 1990 Onwards
Hawking’s book The Brief History of Time, which was published in 1988, was the best seller in Sunday Times for 237 weeks. In 1994, Hawking and Penrose gave a series of lectures at Cambridge’s Newton Institute. The lectures were published in 1996. The Nature of Space and Time was published in 1997. In the BBC poll, Hawkings was ranked the top 25 greatest Britons, in 2002.
There is a film on his book The Brief History of Time, that was released in 1992. He continued traveling but due to his disability, he traveled by private jet mostly. Hawking kept writing for his audience and kept unraveling the space for the public. He published a more updated second version of his book known as The Briefer History of Time. Hawking has won numerous awards and holds thirteen prestigious degrees. He has also written many books that explain the universe, time, and space. His few famous words were:
Remember to look up at the stars, and not down at your feet. Try to make sense of what you see and wonder about what makes the universe exist. Be curious.
Other Famous Books Written by Stephen Hawking
Apart from the three major books mentioned above, there are several other books written by Stephen Hawking to dive into. Full of theories and essays, here are a few mentioned below:
- The Universe in a Nutshell– Published in 2001, it is known as the sequel of The Brief History of Time, discussing topics such as time travel or string theory.
- The Grand Design– Published in 2010, this book is written by Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow. This book explores the history and science behind the universe.
- The Theory of Everything-This book was published in 2002, The Theory of Everything is a very famous book by him. Based on his theories of general relativity, quantum mechanics, and fundamentals of the universe.
- Black Holes: The Reith Lectures– A compilation of his lectures on BBC in 2016 is known as the Black Hole: The Reith Lectures. This explores the physics behind black holes and their role in the universe.
- Brief Answers to the Big Questions– This book was published in 2018, after the death of Hawking. In this book, he questions the complex topics that mankind has lived up to. Such as if God exists or the future of Artificial Intelligence.