Born on January 8th, 1942 in Oxford, England. Stephen was born into a family that was brilliant. His mother was Scottish and in the 1930's, it was difficult for women to go to college. Stephen's mother was lucky enough to be one of those elected ladies to go to Oxford University. Stephen's father also graduated from Oxford University and was a "well known medical researcher with a specialty in tropical diseases" (Bio, 2016).
Stephen surprisingly was recorded as the third lowest student in his grade in grade school. It wasn't that he wasn't smart, but he had different interests with making up mathematical board games with his friends. Hawking's father wanted him to go into the medicine, however Hawking always found himself interested in science and the sky. His mother stated, "Stephen always had a strong sense of wonder, and I could see tasters would draw him" (Bio, 2016).
At age 17, Hawking went to Oxford University and sparked a interest in mathematics. Oxford didn't have a program for mathematics so he went into physics and, more specifically, he loved cosmology. "In 1962, he graduated with honors in natural science and went on to attend Trinity Hall at Cambridge University for a PhD cosmology". (Bio, 2016)
Diagnosed with ALS
In the first year at Cambridge University, Hawking noticed having some new health issues. He would stumble often and slur his speech every once in a while, but he decided to keep this to himself. Not to long after he began to notice these changes, His father noticed and took him to see a doctor. He stayed at a hospital for two weeks while Hawking went through ongoing tests. They soon found out he had Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) also known as Lou Gehrig's disease. ALS is defined simply as the nerves in your body shutting down your muscles. The doctors only gave him two years to live. The news to Hawking was devastating to him and his family. Hawking later stated that "before my condition I was very bored with life...there had not seemed to be anything worth doing". The thing that made this the hardest was that Hawking was in love with Jane Wilde and they were married in 1965. Hawking was never really good with his studies, but after he was diagnosed, he was determined to get as much study and research in as possible. (Bio, 2016).
The Beginning of Hawking's Career
Hawking was always fascinated by the stars when he was younger. That is why he went into cosmology. His disease began to slowdown at this moment in time, but not before his body had become too weak for him to stand. He was put in a wheelchair in 1969, a year after his first born son arrived (Jane and Stephen had two more children after that). 1974 is when it changed for Hawking's career, or changed the view the world had on black holes. In that year, Hawking "showed that black holes aren't the information vacuum that scientists had thought they were. In simple terms, Hawking demonstrated that matter, in the form of radiation, can escape the gravitational force of a collapsed star". This event changed the science world for ever, and Hawking himself. He received marked awards, notoriety and distinguished titles because of his discovery, but his love for cosmology kept him going. One of those great awards was the Royal Society, which Hawking received at the age of 32. Besides receiving numerous awards, many books, and over a dozen TV shows and movies have been made on his life. The most recent is "The theory of Everything".
The Computer
By the mid-1970's, Hawking's health was dissipating. He could still get out of bed and feed himself, but that was about it. He speech was significantly slurred. By 1985, he could not speak anymore. He now had to have a 24-hour nurse care. His ability to work was at a stop. "The predicament caught the attention of a California computer programmer, who had developed a speaking program that could be directed by hand and eye movement". I can only imagine the excitement Hawking had when he found this out. The invention took select words on a computer screen, and then passed them through a speech synthesizer. Today, with virtually all control of his body gone, Hawking directs the program through a cheek muscle attached to a sense (Bio, 2016). "The Computer" is what Hawking calls his open source program that helps him communicate, written by Intel. How this works is there is a cursor on his computer screen. He moves his cheek muscle and he stops his cursor on the character. His check movement is detected by an infrared switch that is mounted on his spectacles. Hawking states, "This switch is my only interface with the computer. ACAT includes a word prediction algorithm provided by SwiftKey, trained on my books and lectures, so I usually only have to type the first couple if characteristics". Hawking has put great thought and time in this program. Hawking has written many books on different subjects involving cosmology. He connected the dots by using his vocabulary in his books and many lectures into his ACAT computer to help him come up with words faster.
Black Holes
Hawking is famous for his black hole theory. "In 1974, Hawking proved that black holes deal with particles, in the form of 'Hawking radiation' ". So overtime, black holes evaporate. So if this is true, then what happens to all the materials when is evaporates? "Here’s Hawking’s new solution(s). At a conference sponsored by the KTH Royal Institute of Technology this week, he proposed one of two answers. First, it’s possible that the physical material (information) swallowed by the black hole never actually enters it at all. Instead, it’s smashed into the point of no return and encoded as a two-dimensional hologram" (Hruska, 2015).
Additional content regarding the many kinds of universes according to Stephen hawking is none of them require a God. This one one of the fascinating concepts of in additional to the discussion of Black Holes, "The Grand Design" as provided by Mr. Hawkins. Stephen Hawking delivered a speech in Geneva in 2015 and asked the question "when did the universe begin".
This is the question that led him on a quest to attempt to answer the question.
Personal Life
Stephen Hawking met and married Jane Wilde at a New Year's Party in 1963 and proceeded to have 3 children together named Robert, Lucy, and Timothy. Stephen Hawking left Jane for his nurse Elaine Mason and married her in 1995 which put a strain on the family. It was reported that Elaine closed Stephen off from his family and physically abused him. Although Stephen denied the allegations of abuse, he divorced her in 2006. Stephen Hawking is now close with his family.
Stephen Hawking the Author
Stephen Hawking has published many books that attempt to answer fundamental questions about the universe and our existence. Professor Hawking has also published many of his lecture notes and scientific papers. One of his best know books is A Brief History Of Time is readily available. You can also find links to some of his other works here. http://www.hawking.org.uk/books.html
Diagnosed with ALS
The Beginning of Hawking's Career
The Computer
Black Holes
Personal Life
Stephen Hawking met and married Jane Wilde at a New Year's Party in 1963 and proceeded to have 3 children together named Robert, Lucy, and Timothy. Stephen Hawking left Jane for his nurse Elaine Mason and married her in 1995 which put a strain on the family. It was reported that Elaine closed Stephen off from his family and physically abused him. Although Stephen denied the allegations of abuse, he divorced her in 2006. Stephen Hawking is now close with his family.Stephen Hawking the Author
Stephen Hawking has published many books that attempt to answer fundamental questions about the universe and our existence. Professor Hawking has also published many of his lecture notes and scientific papers. One of his best know books is A Brief History Of Time is readily available. You can also find links to some of his other works here. http://www.hawking.org.uk/books.html
Work Cited