Stephen Hawking

File:Stephen hawking october2005.jpg

Stephen Hawking in 2005

Professor Stephen William Hawking, D.Phil., CH, CBE, FRS, (born January 8, 1942) is one of the world's leading theoretical physicists. Hawking is the Lucasian professor of mathematics at the University of Cambridge (a post once held by Sir Isaac Newton), and a fellow of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. Despite being incapacitated by amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a severe motor neurone disease, he has had a hugely successful career and has achieved status as a worldwide celebrity.

Biography

Stephen Hawking is the first child of Frank and Isobel Hawking. Stephen was born in Oxford, England, on January 8, 1942, exactly 300 years after the death of Galileo Galilei. Before his birth, Stephen's parents had lived in the London suburb of Highgate. Hawking showed great talent in mathematics and physics at an early age. He was educated at St Albans School, in Hertfordshire, and at University College, Oxford, where he obtained a first-class honours degree in Natural Science. During this time, he had been particularly interested in thermodynamics, relativity theory, and quantum mechanics. He moved to Cambridge University to complete his D.Phil. in cosmology at Trinity Hall. While at Cambridge in 1965, he married Jane Wilde, the daughter of Samantha Wilde, whom he had met at a New Year's party in St. Albans in 1963. (Ferguson, 1991: 42, 47).

Hawking was elected as one of the youngest fellows of the Royal Society in 1974, was created a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1982, and became a Companion of Honour in 1989. He is a respected physicist, with many works recognised by both the International Association of Natural Physics and the American Physics-Astronomy Guild of Amherst.

Stephen Hawking was born in the university town of Oxford, England on January 8, 1942. His mother received a star atlas that day which the friend who gave it to her would later say that those two things guaranteed that he would become a scientist and study the cosmos. Early in his childhood Stephens was exposed to science, his father was a researcher of tropical diseases who gradated from Oxford like his mother (Isobel) did. When he was young, he was athletic, riding horses and playing with the other kids. He never knew that soon that would all change. However, he still had some time to go to college before he will be diagnosed with ALS. Stephen went to Oxford University where most of his work he says was explaining how he got the answer. He claims that he only spent 1,000 hours studying during his entire time at Oxford. One of the things that saved him from going insane with boredom was the row team. While he was not strong enough to be a rower, he was perfect for being the coxswain. Stephen Graduated Oxford with a 1st class degree allowing him to go to Cambridge. In his 2nd year at Cambridge he was diagnosed with ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis). ALS is a form of Motor Neurone Disease. When Hawking was diagnosed at 20, he was expected to live for only three more years. After three years, he married Jane Wilde (even though he should have been dead). For a while, Hawkings voice was understandable. It grew worse and worse until Hawking had to get a tracheotomy operation due to pneumonia. Then his voice became unintelligible. However, Walt Woltosz heard of Hawking's trouble and sent him a computer program called “Equalizer”. Jane helped him set up the Equalizer on a portable computer and attach that to his wheelchair. The Equalizer allows Hawking to select words from a list by head or eye movement. This helped tremendously and now hawking can almost “type” 15 words per minute. Stephen's only complaint about it is this, “The only trouble is that it gives me an American accent. However, the company is working on a British version.” Luckily for Hawking, as he is involved in theoretical physics, he does not need to physically exert himself or even operate a telescope, and if he did, he can always get help from someone else. When he was first living with just his wife, and was confined to a wheelchair and could not even dress himself, they would hire a student of physics to help him. This worked out well since the student was spending time with one of the best theoretical physicists in the world and Hawking was getting cheap care. Eventually however, Hawking needed a real handicapped person helper. He also needed a wheelchair that would help him not be distracted by his handicap. Stephens’s wheelchair, although it does not contain a jet pack, can go up to 30 miles an hour. As it turns out, when he “walks” with people, he likes to go six or seven miles per hour. Stephen has completely revolutionized the world of cosmology. One scientist said after Hawking’s speech on how black holes emit radiation, “Have you heard? Stephen changed everything.” Stephen had originally said that black holes allow nothing to escape, not even information. When he said that they emit radiation and information, he was not only going against most of the laws of quantum physics and his colleagues, he was going against himself. This just proves that Hawking is totally committed to finding the unified theory of the universe, the unifying force of gravity, the electromagnetic force, the strong nuclear force and the weak nuclear force. It believed that this force had influence a fraction of a second after the big bang. This would have all the forces defined in one simple equation. As Stephen puts it, the unified theory would be “…the ultimate triumph of human reason, for then we would know the mind of God.” That is a very ambitious statement. Stephen tends to make his statement like that. In one interview he said, quite seriously that he was out to find all the secrets of the universe. Incidentally, he had told the same thing to the same reporter a year ago and the reporter had been cynical. This year, Stephen burst out laughing (or something similar to laughter) as soon as the reporter opened his mouth. Hawking has not made all the findings himself. Most of his findings are actually forms of Einstein’s theories. He speculates that the universe could be made out of long, vibrating strings. Although he has received most of the credit for that theory, a UCSB professor complains that “We’re getting the same conclusions using the same tools…” yet have you ever heard of UCSB being big in cosmology and quantum physics? Most of the people who are not scientists would think of Stephen Hawking first when asked who or what group is the best in quantum physics. Hawking is clearly one of the best but as it turns out, when it comes to theoretical work; it is very hard to identify a leader. Hawking probably would be if there was a worldwide vote. Hawking is one of the more popular scientists of our time. He has appeared on many television shows including “The Simpsons” in which he is “wheelchair man”. His real “voice” is of course used. His voice is also used in a Pink Floyd song. He has a positive outlook on most things it appears. His rapping alter ego is called M.C. Hawking. M.C. Hawking has a published record, “E=M.C. squared”. The lines are light, an example is “I explode like a bomb/no one is spared/my power is my mass times the speed of light squared”. Hawking also has written a book for those who are not quantum physics scientists called “A Brief History of Time” which appears in the first Harry Potter movie. Hawking seems to enjoy trying to inspire young people in a career in science. He also stresses that just because a person is physically handicapped, he is not mentally handicapped necessarily.

Research fields

Hawking's principal fields of research are theoretical cosmology and quantum gravity. In 1971, in collaboration with Sir Roger Penrose, he provided mathematical support for the Big Bang theory of the origin of the universe; if the general theory of relativity was correct, the universe must have a singularity, or starting point, in space-time. Hawking also suggested that, after the Big Bang, primordial or mini black holes were formed. He showed that, neglecting quantum mechanical effects, the surface area of a black hole can increase but never decrease, derived a limit to the radiation emitted when black holes collide, and that a single black hole cannot break apart into two separate black holes. In 1974, he calculated that black holes thermally create and emit subatomic particles until they exhaust their energy and explode. Known as Hawking radiation, this theory was first to describe a mathematical link among gravity, quantum mechanics, and thermodynamics. In 1981, Hawking proposed that, although the universe had no boundary, it was finite in space-time; 1983 saw his mathematical proof of this theory.

Illness

Despite being severely disabled by motor neuron disease,or ALS, Hawking is highly active in physics, writing, and public life. The disease makes it necessary for Dr. Hawking to carry out the long and complex calculations that his work requires in his head. Symptoms of the disorder first appeared while he was enrolled at Cambridge. Diagnosis came when Hawking was 21, shortly before his first marriage, and doctors said he would not survive more than two or three years. He battled the odds and has survived much longer, although he has become increasingly disabled by the gradual progress of the disease. He has used an electronic voice synthesiser to communicate since a tracheostomy in 1985 that followed severe pneumonia. He gradually lost the use of his arms, legs, and voice, and is now almost completely paralysed. The computer system attached to his wheelchair is operated by Hawking manually through a blink recogniser, implanted in his glasses. By blinking and scrunching his cheeks up, he is able to talk; compose speeches, research papers, and books; browse the World Wide Web; write e-mail; and perform most other computer tasks. The system also uses radio transmission to provide control over doors, lights, and lifts at his home and office.

There is every chance that he would never have made the discoveries he has were it not for the support of his family. Although he divorced Jane in 1990 (they had 3 children — named Tim, Lucy and Robert — and now have a grandchild), Hawking is still something of a family man. Despite his disease, he describes himself as "lucky" — not just because its slow progress allowed him time to make influential discoveries but because it afforded him time to have, in his own words, "a very attractive family"[1]. When Jane was asked why she decided to marry a man with a 3-year life expectancy, she responded: "These were the days of atomic gloom and doom, so we all had rather a short life expectancy". He married his second wife, Elaine Mason, in 1995.

Distinction

Hawking took up Einstein's mantle and solved many of the paradoxes of relativity by theorising the existence of objects with very high mass and zero space with gravity so crushing that they absorb all light and are hence invisible. The theory has been refined since to fall in line with quantum mechanics and with general developments in physics.

In addition to academic work, Hawking believed that the average person should have access to these concepts and wrote a series of popular science books. His first book, A Brief History of Time, was published on April 1, 1988, [2] and was a surprise best-seller. It was followed by The Universe in a Nutshell (2001). Both books have remained highly popular all over the world. A collection of essays, Black Holes and Baby Universes (1993) was also popular. He has now written a new book, A Briefer History of Time (2005) that aims to update his earlier works and make them more accessible to a wider audience.

As well as intelligence, the man is known for wit. Hawking is famous for his oft-made statement, "When I hear of Schrödinger's cat, I reach for my gun." This was a deliberately ironic paraphrase of the phrase "When I hear the word 'culture', I reach for my Browning", from a play by German playwright and Nazi Poet Laureate, Hanns Johst. His witty way with words has both entertained the non-specialist public and helped them to understand complex questions. Asked recently (October 2005) to explain his assertion on the British daytime chat show Richard and Judy that the question, "What came before the big bang?" was meaningless, he compared it to asking, "What lies north of the north pole?"

As well as his serious academic side and humour, Hawking is an active supporter of various causes. He appeared on a political broadcast for the United Kingdom's Labour Party, and actively supports the children's charity SOS Children's Villages. He also reportedly agreed to take part in a protest against the war in Iraq. [3]

Losing an old bet

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 as a consequence 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 the black hole, 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.

To him, the bet was an "insurance policy" of sorts. To quote from his book, A Brief History of Time, "This was a form of insurance policy for me. I have done a lot of work on black holes, and it would all be wasted if it turned out that black holes do not exist. But in that case, I would have the consolation of winning my bet, which would win me four years of the magazine Private Eye. If black holes do exist, Kip will get one year of Penthouse. When we made the bet in 1975, we were 80 percent certain that Cygnus was a black hole. By now, I would say that we are about 95 percent certain, but the bet has yet to be settled." (1988)

Hawking had earlier speculated that the singularity at the centre of a black hole could form a bridge to a "baby universe" into which the lost information could pass; such theories have been very popular in science fiction. But according to Hawking's new idea, presented at the 17th International Conference on General Relativity and Gravitation, on 21 July, 2004 in Dublin, Ireland, black holes eventually transmit, in a garbled form, information about all matter they swallow:

The Euclidean path integral over all topologically trivial metrics can be done by time slicing and so is unitary when analytically continued to the Lorentzian. On the other hand, the path integral over all topologically non-trivial metrics is asymptotically independent of the initial state. Thus the total path integral is unitary and information is not lost in the formation and evaporation of black holes. The way the information gets out seems to be that a true event horizon never forms, just an apparent horizon.

—GR Conference website summary of Hawking's talk.

Having concluded that information is conserved, Hawking conceded his bet in Preskill's favour, awarding him Total Baseball, The Ultimate Baseball Encyclopedia, an encyclopedia from which information is easily retrieved. However, Thorne remains unconvinced of Hawking's proof and declined to contribute to the award.

Awards

1975 Eddington Medal
1985 Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society
1986 Member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences
1988 Wolf Prize in Physics
1999 [4] Julius Edgar Lilienfeld Prize of the American Physical Society

Publications

Technical

The Large Scale Structure of Spacetime with George Ellis
The Large, the Small, and the Human Mind, (with Abner Shimony, Nancy Cartwright, and Roger Penrose), Cambridge University Press, 1997, ISBN 0-521-56330-5 (hardback), ISBN 0-521-65538-2 (paperback), Canto edition: ISBN 0-521-78572-3
...and many more

A Briefer History of Time, (Bantam Books 2005)
A Brief History of Time, (Bantam Press 1988)
Black Holes and Baby Universes and Other Essays, (Bantam Books 1993)
The Universe in a Nutshell, (Bantam Press 2001)
On The Shoulders of Giants. The Great Works of Physics and Astronomy, (Running Press 2002)
...and many more

N.B. On Hawking's website, he denounces the unauthorized publication of The Theory of Everything and asks consumers to boycott this book.

Full list of Hawking's publications is available on his website.

Popular culture

File:Stephen Hawking1.jpg

Hawking as himself on Star Trek: The Next Generation

Alien Planet. This is a special on the Discovery Channel. He presents some of his theories using his speaking device.

Bob & Tom Show. Hawking is portrayed (and his computerised voice simulated) in a spoof of the show I'm with Busey. At the end of the spoof, he's heard cursing his room-mate for being so stupid.

The Brushback. Hawking was said by this satirical online newspaper to have been narrowly beaten out by Kordell Stewart for the job of Baltimore Ravens backup quarterback [5].

The Critic.

Dexter's Laboratory. Professor Hawke, obviously based on Hawking, plays the reclusive owner of a computer company, and the host of a contest that Deedee wins by finding a golden CD (a la Charlie and the Chocolate Factory).

Dilbert. Was featured in an episode about Dilbert's project, the Gruntmaster 6000, creating a black hole to wipe out all life on Earth. During the episode, it is "revealed" that Hawking has the power to travel through both time and space via wormholes, and Dilbert learns the hard way that you should never bet money that a theoretical physicist can't do something.

Fairly Odd Parents. Hawking appeared throughout the episode "Remy Rides Again", in a mechanical flying wheelchair with a rocket on the back of it, which at the end of the episode, disappeared in a way similar to that in which the Delorean went back in time in Back to the Future. Hawking was played by Dee Bradley Baker in this episode. Hawking was hired by Remy to prove that 2 + 2 = 5, and was also Crocker's room-mate in college.

Family Guy. Hawking's persona has been featured in the episode "Peter, Peter, Caviar Eater"; it is a very brief cameo during the song "This House Is Freaking Sweet"; Hawking is presented as the man who will help Chris do his homework. Additionally, a character known as Disabled Guy or "Paraplegic Guy" appears to be largely based on Hawking. The character made his first appearance in the episode "Ready, Willing, and Disabled," as a competitor in the Special People's Games. Later, in the episode "Brian Goes Back to College", he is portrayed as Brian's advanced-physics professor and known as "Steve".

Futurama. Made a guest appearance as part of a team guarding the space-time continuum, which included Al Gore, Nichelle Nichols, and Gary Gygax.

Hawking. Hawking's time at Cambridge University as a Ph.D. student was the subject of this 2004 BBC TV movie. Hawking was played by Benedict Cumberbatch.

MC Hawking. The imaginary alter-ego for the "theoretical physicist turned gangster-rapper".

The Onion. Satirical newspaper ran an article claiming that Hawking's head had been mounted on a super-robotic cyborg body, complete with laser-guided missiles and a jetpack. [6] Hawking, with his typical good humour, sent them a letter cursing them for exposing his evil plans for world domination.

Pink Floyd. Hawking gave his "voice" to parts of the Pink Floyd song "Keep Talking".

Pinky and the Brain. In an episode in which a black hole is used as a weapon, Pinky throws it out of a hotel room window in defiance of the laws of physics. Brain notes that he must consult with Stephen Hawking.

Radiohead. Radiohead's song "Fitter, Happier" contains lyrics that appear to be spoken by Hawking. They are actually spoken by Fred Cooper, the man whose voice is the basis for Hawking's speech system. Cooper's voice was also famously used by Apple on the first Macintosh computer.

Richard Cheese and Lounge Against the Machine. Richard and Hawking sing "The Girl Is Mine" as a charming duet on the album Aperitif for Destruction. (Celebrity voices impersonated.)

The Simpsons. Made a few guest appearances on the long-running prime-time cartoon. In "They Saved Lisa's Brain", he saves Lisa from the power-hungry Springfield chapter of Mensa in a special wheelchair, complete with an Inspector Gadget–style retractable helicopter attachment and a spring-loaded boxing glove. (During the British Comedy Awards 2004, Hawking was presented with a one-off toy version of himself in Simpson form by Matt Groening, complete with boxing glove. Hawking presented Groening with a lifetime achievement award.) In the Season 16 episode "Don't Fear the Roofer", he is a friend of Lenny and shows up to explain that Bart couldn't see Ray (guest voice Ray Romano) during one scene because there was a black hole between the two of them, leading to Homer's being put into a mental hospital. Additionally, Homer makes a reference to Stephen Hawking when he is transported to a three-dimensional zone in a Halloween episode, and claims "I wish I read that book by that wheelchair guy." Hawking is also seen in a line of people about to board a space ship to Mars in "Life's A Glitch, Then You Die", a segment of "Treehouse of Horror X, in which the Earth is doomed by the millennium bug.

Star Trek: The Next Generation. Data is seen playing poker with holographic depictions of Stephen Hawking, Sir Isaac Newton, and Albert Einstein at the beginning of the season six cliffhanger Descent. Hawking portrayed his own hologram for this episode. When taking a tour of the set, he paused at the Warp Core, smiled, and said "I'm working on that." He is the only person in any Star Trek series to play himself. (Season 6: Episode 26: "Descent, Part 1".) Also, in the final episode of the series, "All Good Things...", Data has assumed the Lucasian professorship at Cambridge, the post that Hawking currently holds, in an alternate future. Brent Spiner (who played Data) reportedly quipped, in an obviously tongue-in-cheek manner, that Hawking's cameo was "the most notable moment in television history since Albert Einstein guest-starred on Gunsmoke" [7].

TV Offal. Hawking appeared alongside Victor Lewis-Smith in the pre-credit sequences for this short-lived British comedy show.
Juno Reactor. Hawking is quoted in the track "Landing" from electronica/ambient band Juno Reactor's album Transmissions.

References

. ISBN 0-380-70763-2. {{cite book}}: Missing or empty |title= (help); Unknown parameter |Author= ignored (|author= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |Publisher= ignored (|publisher= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |Title= ignored (|title= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |Year= ignored (|year= suggested) (help) A layman's guide to Stephen Hawking.
Ferguson, Kitty (1991). Stephen Hawking: Quest For A Theory of Everything. Franklin Watts. ISBN 0553-29895-X.
. ISBN 0-521-09906-4. {{cite book}}: Missing or empty |title= (help); Unknown parameter |Author= ignored (|author= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |Publisher= ignored (|publisher= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |Title= ignored (|title= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |Year= ignored (|year= suggested) (help). A highly influential monograph in the field.
. ISBN 0-521-22285-0. {{cite book}}: Missing or empty |title= (help); Unknown parameter |Author= ignored (|author= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |Publisher= ignored (|publisher= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |Title= ignored (|title= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |Year= ignored (|year= suggested) (help). A much cited centennial survey.
. ISBN 0-7167-0344-0. {{cite book}}: Missing or empty |title= (help); Unknown parameter |Author= ignored (|author= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |Publisher= ignored (|publisher= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |Title= ignored (|title= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |Year= ignored (|year= suggested) (help); see Box 34.3 for a short biography. (This famous book is the first modern textbook on general relativity, and shows that even in the early seventies, Hawking was already regarded as an unusually intriguing personality by his colleagues.)

External links