Who is Stephen Hawking? This question is asked by many people who first saw the scientist on television or read his articles. Professors can be found everywhere - in the news, programs on space, scientific journals and even in your favorite TV shows. Many people have a question: "A scientist in a stroller - what's his name?" The answer is Stephen Hawking. A biography with a photo will help you learn more about this smartest person.
Childhood and youth
The British scientist was born in Oxford, January 8, 1942. His father, Frank, worked at the Hampstead Medical Research Center, and his mother, Isabelle, worked there as a secretary. Stephen has 2 sisters - Philip and Mary and adoptive brother Edward.
The future scientist grew up as an ordinary child and did not show any outstanding abilities. He loved to collect electric locomotives and collect models of various equipment.
According to his mother, Stephen already at school looked like a little scientist with his awkward figure, big glasses and a love of scientific debate. Peers called him Zubrila and Einstein, but, despite these nicknames, the scientist was never an excellent student. He preferred physics, mathematics and chemistry, and was indifferent to other sciences. Nevertheless, grades allowed him to go to Oxford University.
Disease
At university, Stephen Hawking enjoyed a fun student life, attended parties and rowed. He devoted a little time to study, performing only the most necessary. There is a known case when Hawking completed a task in one day, which his classmates could not cope with in a week.
In the third year, Hawking began to notice some clumsiness, he often fell and dropped things. After another severe fall, he went to the doctor, but the physician did not find cause for concern and advised the student to drink less beer and relax more.
Stephen graduated with honors from Oxford. The next step in obtaining a degree in physics was Cambridge. The scientist’s health condition worsened and the awkwardness could no longer be attributed to fatigue or distraction. At the age of 21, Hawking went to the doctor again.
This time a more serious study was conducted. Doctors found that the disease is progressing and Stephen has no more than two years to live. Atrophic lateral sclerosis (Lu-Goering’s disease) is a disease that destroys the nerve cells responsible for muscle control. The disease progresses, and gradually motor activity fades away, paralysis occurs and eventually the respiratory muscles fail, which leads to death.
Typically, this fatal disease occurs in older people over 50 years old, and patients die within 2.5 years of diagnosis. An exception to both rules was Professor Stephen Hawking. The biography of the scientist could be offensively short, but now he is already 73 years old.
Personal life
Who is Stephen Hawking? Not only the famous scientist, who during his life became almost a legend, but also a happy father and grandfather. Family and new love really helped the young man to adapt to a new life after a terrible diagnosis. The disease progressed slowly, which allowed Stephen to gradually get used to his condition.
Depression and a pessimistic mood helped to overcome successes in work and the relations that began with a young girl Jane Wilde. The future wife became a muse, assistant and best friend of the scientist. In order to financially secure their future, Hawking began to work actively. In 1965, he married Jane after a year of relationship. In 1967 he was forced to start using crutches and in the same year his firstborn was born. Stephen met two other children already in a wheelchair.
In 1985, during a trip to Geneva, Hawking contracted pneumonia. This disease is extremely dangerous for people with lateral sclerosis. Stephen was in serious condition, and doctors suggested that Jane let her terminally ill husband die quietly. But the woman decided to fight for the life of her husband to the end and moved him home to Cambridge, where she managed to overcome the infection. To facilitate breathing, doctors were forced to have a tracheotomy. The scientist forever lost the ability to speak.
It was hard for Jane to cope with three children and her husband, so after the operation they hired a caregiver Elaine Mason.
Due to disagreements and difficult conditions in the house, Stephen divorced his wife and moved to his caretaker's house in 1990. The spouse filed for divorce in 1991, and already in 1995, Hawking married Elaine.
Their marriage lasted 11 years and was accompanied by numerous scandals in the press. Many suspected that the woman had married out of selfish motives and was mistreating her husband. In 2004, Stephen was even summoned for questioning by the police to explain the origin of numerous injuries. The scientist denied the accusations against his wife, but still divorced after 2 years. Today he is not married and communicates closely with his children and grandchildren.
Armchair
In 1970, Hawking was no longer able to move independently and began to use a wheelchair, first ordinary, later with a pneumatic motor. Who is Stephen Hawking without his chair, which allows the professor to continue to work, despite the dire health condition? It was the image of a scientist in a huge armchair stuffed with electronic devices that was so remembered by the townsfolk. Due to his interest in his person, Hawking chose the popularization of science as one of his areas of activity.
After the tracheotomy, the scientific activity of the professor was in jeopardy, because he practically could not communicate. He had to use cards with letters, pointing to the desired movement of the eyebrows. Writing one word took a full minute. A real breakthrough in the communication system was the use of a computer. Letters and words crawl across the screen, which can be indicated by pressing a finger on a clicker.
Engineer David Mason helped create a portable computer that could be mounted on a wheelchair, and provided Hawking with his famous electronic voice with an American accent. By the way, Stephen considers this voice his calling card and does not refuse it when updating equipment and software.
Now the scientist’s fingers are paralyzed and together with his assistant, he invented a new communication system. Now the computer can be controlled using an infrared sensor that catches the twitching of the right cheek.
Scientific work
The nature of black holes is one of the areas that Stephen Hawking is interested in. The famous scientist is one of the founders of quantum cosmology. His findings made a splash in the scientific community. The professor believes that a black hole does not absorb information without a trace, but distorts and releases as it evaporates. This radiation is named after Hawking.
The professor is actively working not only on writing books and articles, but also gives public lectures, attends scientific conferences around the world, starred in television programs and gives interviews. He discusses the development of artificial intelligence and the colonization of other planets, helps in medical research and is interested in creating exoskeletons that will allow people with disabilities to live a full life.
Popularization of science
Due to his recognition, Professor Stephen Hawking does a lot to popularize science. His first book , A Brief History of Time, was published in 1988, has become a bestseller and is still popular today. It is written in simple language for ordinary people, far from the world of science.
Other famous books by Hawking are Black Holes and Young Universes, and The World in a Nutshell. They talk about the contents of black holes, the device of space-time and the Big Bang. The scientist also wrote a children's book in collaboration with his daughter. She tells children about space and is called "George and the Secrets of the Universe."
Stephen Hawking is the author of popular science programs about space "The Stephen Hawking Universe", "Into the Universe with Siven Hawking", "The Great Plan for Stephen Hawking."
Mass media
The professor’s name is often mentioned in various shows and television programs, in which Stephen Hawking is pleased to take part. The life and work of the scientist is shown in two feature films "Theory of Everything" and "Hawking." He has a cameo in the popular series of young physicists, The Big Bang Theory, and the series Star Trek: The Next Generation, and Stephen voiced his characters in The Simpsons and Futurama on his own.
In addition, the image of a scientist in a wheelchair and his name is used in a huge number of science fiction films, series, books.
After watching the movies and reading his books, you can fully answer for yourself the question: "Who is Stephen Hawking?"