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Stephen Hawking
black and white photo of Hawking in a chair, in an office.
Stephen Hawking at NASA, 1980s
Born
Stephen William Hawking

(1942-01-08) 8 January 1942 (age 82)
Oxford, England, United Kingdom
NationalityBritish
Alma mater
Known for
Spouses
  • Jane Hawking
  • (m. 1965–1991, divorced)
  • Elaine Mason
    (m. 1995–2006, divorced)
Awards
Scientific career
Fields
Institutions
Doctoral advisorDennis Sciama
Other academic advisorsRobert Berman
Notable studentsRaymond Laflamme
Don Page

Stephen William Hawking, CH, CBE, FRS, FRSA (born 8 January 1942) is a British theoretical physicist and author. His key scientific works to date have been a collaboration with Roger Penrose on theorems on gravitational singularities in the framework of general relativity, and the theoretical prediction that black holes should emit radiation, often called Hawking radiation.

He is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a lifetime member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, and a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the United States. Hawking was the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge between 1979 and 2009. Subsequently, he became research director at the university's Centre for Theoretical Cosmology.

Hawking has a motor neurone disease related to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a condition that has progressed over the years. He is now almost completely paralysed and communicates through a speech generating device. He has been married twice and has three children. Hawking has achieved success with works of popular science in which he discusses his own theories and cosmology in general; these include A Brief History of Time, which stayed on the British Sunday Times best-sellers list for a record-breaking 237 weeks.

Early life and education

Stephen Hawking was born on 8 January 1942 to Frank Hawking, a research biologist, and Isobel Hawking.[1] He has two younger sisters, Philippa and Mary, and an adopted brother, Edward.[2] Hawking's parents were living in North London, but moved to Oxford shortly before his birth, while London was under attack during World War II.[3]

When his father became head of the division of parasitology at the National Institute for Medical Research[1] in 1950, Hawking and his family moved to St Albans, Hertfordshire.[3] Hawking attended St Albans High School for Girls from 1950 to 1953; at that time, boys could attend the girls' school until the age of 10.[2] From the age of 11, he attended St Albans School, where he was a good, but not exceptional, student.[3] He maintains his connection with the school, giving his name to one of the four houses and to an extracurricular science lecture series.[4]

Hawking has named his secondary school mathematics teacher Dikran Tahta as an inspiration,[5] and originally wanted to study the subject at university. However, Hawking's father wanted him to apply to University College, Oxford, which his father had attended. As University College did not have a mathematics fellow at that time, applications were not accepted from students who wished to study that discipline. Hawking therefore applied to read natural sciences with an emphasis in physics. He was accepted and gained a scholarship.[3] While at Oxford, he coxed a rowing team, which, he stated, helped relieve his immense boredom at the university.[6] His physics tutor, Robert Berman, later said "It was only necessary for him to know that something could be done, and he could do it without looking to see how other people did it. ... his mind was completely different from all of his contemporaries".[3]

Hawking's unimpressive study habits resulted in a final examination score on the borderline between first and second class honours, making an "oral examination" necessary.[3] Berman said of the oral examination: "And of course the examiners then were intelligent enough to realize they were talking to someone far more clever than most of themselves".[3] After receiving his B.A. degree at Oxford in 1962, he left for graduate work at Trinity Hall, Cambridge.[3]

Career

1962–75

Hawking started developing symptoms of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis as soon as he arrived at Cambridge and did not distinguish himself in his first two years at that institution. With the help of his doctoral tutor, Dennis William Sciama, he returned to working on his PhD after the disease had stabilised[7] and graduated with his doctorate in 1966,[1] before starting a four-year research fellowship at Cambridge.[7]

When Hawking began his graduate studies in the 1960s, there was much debate in the physics community about the opposing theories of the creation of the universe: big bang, and steady state.[7] Hawking and his Cambridge friend and colleague, Roger Penrose, showed in 1970 that if the universe obeys general relativity and fits any of the Friedmann models, then it must have begun as a singularity.[8] This work showed that, far from being mathematical curiosities which appear only in special cases, singularities are a fairly generic feature of general relativity.[9]

In 1969, Hawking accepted a specially created 'Fellowship for Distinction in Science' to stay at Cambridge,[10] and in the early 1970s, Hawking's work with Brandon Carter, Werner Israel and D. Robinson strongly supported John Wheeler's no-hair theorem – that any black hole is fully described by the three properties of mass, angular momentum, and electric charge.[11] With Bardeen and Carter, he proposed the four laws of black hole mechanics, drawing an analogy with thermodynamics.[12] In 1974, he calculated that black holes should emit radiation, known today as Hawking or Bekenstein–Hawking radiation, until they exhaust their energy and evaporate.[8]

Hawking was elected one of the youngest Fellows of the Royal Society in 1974,[13] and in the same year he accepted the Sherman Fairchild Distinguished Scholar visiting professorship at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) to work with his friend on the faculty, Kip Thorne.[14] He continues to have ties to Caltech, having spent a month each year there since 1992.[15]

1975–present

Hawking outside, in his wheelchair, talking to David Gross and Edward Witten
Hawking with string theorists David Gross and Edward Witten at the 2001 Strings Conference, TIFR, India

The mid to late 1970s were a period of growing fame and success for Hawking. His work was now much talked about; he was appearing in popular television documentaries, and in 1979 he was made the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge, a post he held for 30 years until his retirement in 2009.[15][16] Hawking's inaugural lecture as Lucasian Professor of Mathematics had the title "Is the end in sight for Theoretical Physics" and promoted the idea that supergravity would help resolve many of the outstanding problems physicists were studying.[15]

In collaboration with Jim Hartle, Hawking developed a model in which the universe had no boundary in space-time, replacing the initial singularity of the classical Big Bang models with a region akin to the North Pole: one cannot travel north of the North Pole, but there is no boundary there – it is simply the point where all north-running lines meet and end.[17] While originally the no-boundary proposal predicted a closed universe, discussions with Neil Turok led to the realisation that it is also consistent with an open universe.[18] Later work by Hawking appeared to show that, if this no-boundary proposal were correct, then when the universe stopped expanding and eventually collapsed, time would run backwards (Hawking famously used the example of broken teacups reassembling).[19] However, work by Don Page, a former student of Hawking, led to Hawking withdrawing this concept.[19]

Along with Thomas Hertog at CERN, in 2006 Hawking proposed a theory of "top-down cosmology", which says that the universe had no unique initial state, and therefore it is inappropriate for physicists to attempt to formulate a theory that predicts the universe's current configuration from one particular initial state.[20] Top-down cosmology posits that in some sense, the present "selects" the past from a superposition of many possible histories. In doing so, the theory suggests a possible resolution of the fine-tuning question.[21]

Thorne–Hawking–Preskill bet

Main article: Thorne–Hawking–Preskill bet

In 1997 Hawking made a public scientific wager with Kip Thorne and John Preskill of Caltech concerning the black hole information paradox.[22] Thorne and Hawking argued that since general relativity made it impossible for black holes to radiate, and lose information, the mass-energy and information carried by Hawking Radiation must be "new", and must not originate from inside the black hole event horizon. Since this contradicted the quantum mechanics of microcausality, quantum mechanics would need to be rewritten. Preskill argued the opposite, that since quantum mechanics suggests that the information emitted by a black hole relates to information that fell in at an earlier time, the view of black holes given by general relativity must be modified in some way.[23] The winner of the bet was to receive an encyclopedia of the loser's choice, from which information may be accessed.[22]

In 2004, Hawking announced that he was conceding the bet because he now believed that black hole horizons should fluctuate and leak information, and gave Preskill a copy of Total Baseball. Comparing the useless information obtainable from a black hole to "burning an encyclopedia", Hawking commented, "I gave John an encyclopedia of baseball, but maybe I should just have given him the ashes".[22]

Recognition

Barack Obama talking to Stehen Hawking in the White House
U.S. President Barack Obama talks with Stephen Hawking in the Blue Room of the White House before a ceremony presenting him and 15 others the Presidential Medal of Freedom on 12 August 2009.

On 19 December 2007, a statue of Hawking by artist Ian Walters was unveiled at the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology, University of Cambridge.[24] Buildings named after Hawking include the Stephen W. Hawking Science Museum in San Salvador, El Salvador,[25] the Stephen Hawking Building in Cambridge,[26] and the Stephen Hawking Centre at Perimeter Institute in Canada.[27] In 2002, he was named in the BBC's list of the 100 Greatest Britons following a UK-wide vote.[28]

Major awards and honours

Personal life

According to Hawking, when he was diagnosed with ALS during an early stage of his graduate work, he did not see much point in obtaining a doctorate, since he expected to die soon after. Hawking later said that the real turning point was his 1965 marriage to Jane Wilde, a language student.[3] Jane cared for him until 1990 when the couple separated.[1] They had three children: Robert, Lucy, and Timothy.[1] Hawking married his personal care assistant, Elaine Mason, in 1995;[1] the couple divorced In October 2006[34] amid claims by former nurses that she had abused him.[35] In 1999, Jane Hawking published a memoir, Music to Move the Stars, detailing the marriage and its breakdown; in 2010 she published a revised version, Travelling to Infinity, My Life with Stephen.[36]

Illness

Hawking sitting in his wheelchair inside
Hawking on 5 May 2006, during the press conference at the Bibliothèque nationale de France to inaugurate the Laboratory of Astronomy and Particles in Paris and the French release of his work God Created the Integers

Hawking has a motor neurone disease that is related to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a condition that has progressed over the years. As of 2012, he is almost completely paralysed and communicates through a speech generating device. Hawking's illness has progressed more slowly than typical cases of ALS: survival for more than 10 years after diagnosis is uncommon.[37][38]

Symptoms of the disorder first appeared while he was enrolled at the University of Cambridge, when he lost his balance and fell down a flight of stairs, hitting his head.[6] The diagnosis of motor neurone disease came when Hawking was 21, shortly before his first marriage, and doctors said he would not survive more than two or three years. By 1974, he was unable to feed himself or get out of bed. His speech became slurred so that he could be understood only by people who knew him well. During a visit to CERN in Geneva in 1985, Hawking contracted pneumonia, which in his condition was life-threatening as it further restricted his already limited respiratory capacity. He had an emergency tracheotomy, losing what remained of his ability to speak.[39] A speech generating device was built in Cambridge, using software from an American company, that enabled Hawking to operate a computer keyboard with small movements of his body, and then have a voice synthesiser speak what he typed.[40]

The particular voice synthesiser hardware he uses, which has an American English accent, is no longer being produced. Asked why he has still kept the same voice after so many years, Hawking stated that he has not heard a voice he likes better and that he identifies with it even though the synthesiser is both large and fragile by current standards. For lectures and media appearances, Hawking appears to speak fluently through his synthesiser, but when he prepares answers, his system produces words at a rate of about one per minute.[41] Hawking's setup uses a predictive text entry system, which requires only the first few characters in order to auto-complete the word, but as he is only able to use his cheek for data entry, constructing complete sentences takes time.[41]

He describes himself as lucky, despite his disease. Its slow progression has allowed him time to make influential discoveries and has not hindered him from having, in his own words, "a very attractive family".[40]

In popular culture

Main article: Stephen Hawking in popular culture

As a person of great interest to the public, Hawking has been referenced or asked to appear in a great many works of popular culture. Hawking has appeared as himself on episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation,[42] The Simpsons, Futurama,[43] and The Big Bang Theory.[44] His actual synthesiser voice was used on parts of the Pink Floyd song "Keep Talking".[45]

Hawking's early life and the onset of his illness was the subject of the 2004 BBC4 TV film Hawking in which he was portrayed by Benedict Cumberbatch. In 2008, Hawking was the subject of and featured in the documentary series Stephen Hawking, Master of the Universe, for Channel 4. In September 2008, Hawking presided over the unveiling of the "Chronophage" (time-eating) Corpus Clock at Corpus Christi College Cambridge.[46]

Space and spaceflight

Hawking, without his wheelchair, floating weightless in the air inside a plane
Hawking taking a zero-gravity flight in a "Vomit Comet" in 2007

Hawking has suggested that space is the Earth's long term hope[47] and has indicated that he is almost certain that alien life exists in other parts of the universe: "To my mathematical brain, the numbers alone make thinking about aliens perfectly rational. The real challenge is to work out what aliens might actually be like".[48] He believes alien life not only certainly exists on planets but perhaps even in other places, like within stars or even floating in outer space. He has also warned that a few of these species might be intelligent and threaten Earth:[49] "If aliens visit us, the outcome would be much as when Columbus landed in America, which didn't turn out well for the Native Americans".[48] He has advocated that, rather than try to establish contact, humans should try to avoid contact with alien life forms.[48]

In 2007, Hawking took a zero-gravity flight in a "Vomit Comet", courtesy of Zero Gravity Corporation, during which he experienced weightlessness eight times.[50] He became the first quadriplegic to float in zero gravity. Before the flight Hawking said:

Many people have asked me why I am taking this flight. I am doing it for many reasons. First of all, I believe that life on Earth is at an ever-increasing risk of being wiped out by a disaster such as sudden nuclear war, a genetically engineered virus, or other dangers. I think the human race has no future if it doesn't go into space. I therefore want to encourage public interest in space.[51]

Religious and philosophical views

In his early work, Hawking spoke of God in a metaphorical sense, such as in A Brief History of Time: "If we discover a complete theory, it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason – for then we should know the mind of God."[52] In the same book he suggested the existence of God was unnecessary to explain the origin of the universe.[53]

His ex-wife, Jane, has described him as an atheist.[54] Hawking has stated that he is "not religious in the normal sense" and he believes that "the universe is governed by the laws of science. The laws may have been decreed by God, but God does not intervene to break the laws."[55] In an interview published in The Guardian newspaper, Hawking regarded the concept of Heaven as a myth, believing that there is "no heaven or afterlife" and that such a notion was a "fairy story for people afraid of the dark."[52][56]

At Google's Zeitgeist Conference in 2011, Hawking said that "philosophy is dead." He believes philosophers "have not kept up with modern developments in science" and that scientists "have become the bearers of the torch of discovery in our quest for knowledge." He said that philosophical problems can be answered by science, particularly new scientific theories which "lead us to a new and very different picture of the universe and our place in it".[57]

Popular Publications

Hawking's first popular science book, A Brief History of Time, was published on 1 April 1988. It stayed on the British Sunday Times best-sellers list for a record-breaking 237 weeks.[58] A Brief History of Time was followed by The Universe in a Nutshell (2001). A collection of essays titled Black Holes and Baby Universes (1993) was also popular. His book, A Briefer History of Time (2005), co-written by Leonard Mlodinow, updated his earlier works to make them accessible to a wider audience. In 2007 Hawking and his daughter, Lucy Hawking, published George's Secret Key to the Universe, a children's book focusing on science that Lucy Hawking described as "a bit like Harry Potter but without the magic."[59]

Books

Children's fiction

Hawking and his daughter Lucy on stage at a presentation
Stephen Hawking being presented by his daughter Lucy Hawking at the lecture he gave for NASA's 50th anniversary

These are co-written with his daughter Lucy.

Films and series

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Larsen 2005, pp. x–xix.
  2. ^ a b Larsen 2005, pp. 3–5.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Ferguson 2011, Chapter 3.
  4. ^ Kirsop, Sam (13 May 2006). "Hawking Lectures Sign Off with Dinner". St Albans School. Retrieved 5 February 2012.
  5. ^ Hoare, Geoffrey; Love, Eric (5 January 2007). "Dick Tahta". guardian.co.uk. London: Guardian News and Media. Retrieved 5 March 2012.
  6. ^ a b Hawking 1992, p. 44.
  7. ^ a b c Ferguson 2011, Chapter 4.
  8. ^ a b Ferguson 2011, Chapter 6.
  9. ^ Hawking, Stephen; Penrose, Roger (1970). "The Singularities of Gravitational Collapse and Cosmology". Proceedings of the Royal Society A. 314 (1519): 529–548. Bibcode:1970RSPSA.314..529H. doi:10.1098/rspa.1970.0021.
  10. ^ Ferguson 2011, Chapter 5.
  11. ^ Hawking & Israel 1989, p. 278.
  12. ^ Larsen 2005, p. 38.
  13. ^ Larsen 2005, p. 44.
  14. ^ Ferguson 2011, Chapter 7.
  15. ^ a b c Ferguson 2011, Chapter 8.
  16. ^ "Hawking gives up academic title". BBC News. 30 September 2009. Retrieved 1 October 2009.
  17. ^ Baird 2007, p. 234.
  18. ^ Yulsman 2003, pp. 174–176.
  19. ^ a b Ferguson 2011, Chapter 14.
  20. ^ Highfield, Roger (26 June 2008). "Stephen Hawking's explosive new theory". The Telegraph. Retrieved 9 April 2012.
  21. ^ Hawking, S.W.; Hertog, T. (2006). "Populating the landscape: A top-down approach". Physical Review D. 73 (12). arXiv:hep-th/0602091. Bibcode:2006PhRvD..73l3527H. doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.73.123527.
  22. ^ a b c Hawking, S.W. (2005). "Information loss in black holes". Physical Review D. 72 (8). arXiv:hep-th/0507171. Bibcode:2005PhRvD..72h4013H. doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.72.084013.
  23. ^ Preskill, John. "John Preskill's comments about Stephen Hawking's concession". Retrieved 29 February 2012.
  24. ^ "Vice-Chancellor unveils Hawking statue". University of Cambridge. 21 December 2007. Retrieved 19 May 2008.
  25. ^ Komar, Oliver; Buechner, Linda (October 2000). "The Stephen W. Hawking Science Museum in San Salvador Central America Honours the Fortitude of a Great Living Scientist". Journal of College Science Teaching. XXX (2). Archived from the original on 30 July 2009. Retrieved 28 September 2008.
  26. ^ "The Stephen Hawking Building". BBC News. 18 April 2007. Retrieved 24 February 2012.
  27. ^ "Grand Opening of the Stephen Hawking Centre at Perimeter Institute". Perimeter Institute. Retrieved 6 June 2012.
  28. ^ "100 great Britons – A complete list". Daily Mail. 21 August 2002. Retrieved 2 August 2012.
  29. ^ Larsen 2005, p. 63.
  30. ^ "Julius Edgar Lilienfeld Prize". American Physical Society. Retrieved 29 August 2008.
  31. ^ "Oldest, space-travelled, science prize awarded to Hawking". The Royal Society. 24 August 2006. Retrieved 29 August 2008.
  32. ^ "Fonseca Prize 2008". University of Santiago de Compostela. Retrieved 7 August 2009.
  33. ^ MacAskill, Ewen (13 August 2009). "Obama presents presidential medal of freedom to 16 recipients". guardian.co.uk. Guardian News and Media. Retrieved 5 March 2012.
  34. ^ Sapsted, David (20 October 2006). "Hawking and second wife agree to divorce". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 18 March 2007.
  35. ^ "Hawking's nurse reveals why she is not surprised his marriage is over". Daily Mail. 20 October 2006. Retrieved 5 March 2012.
  36. ^ "Welcome back to the family, Stephen". The Times. 6 May 2007. Archived from the original on 3 December 2008. Retrieved 6 May 2007.
  37. ^ Mitsumoto & Munsat 2001, p. 36.
  38. ^ Harmon, Katherine (7 January 2012). "How Has Stephen Hawking Lived to 70 with ALS?". Scientific American. Retrieved 15 March 2012.
  39. ^ Larsen 2005, p. 72–81.
  40. ^ a b Hawking, Stephen. "Living with ALS". Stephen Hawking Official Website. Retrieved 24 February 2012.
  41. ^ a b de Lange, Catherine (30 December 2011). "The man who saves Stephen Hawking's voice". New Scientist. Retrieved 18 June 2012.
  42. ^ Okuda & Okuda 1999, p. 380.
  43. ^ Cheng, Maria (5 January 2012). "Stephen Hawking to turn 70, defying disease". Boston.com. Retrieved 3 March 2012.
  44. ^ "Professor Stephen Hawking films Big Bang Theory cameo". BBC news. 12 March 2012. Retrieved 12 March 2012.
  45. ^ Larsen 2005, p. 94.
  46. ^ "Time to unveil Corpus Clock". Cambridgenetwork.co.uk. 22 September 2008. Archived from the original on 26 September 2008. Retrieved 22 May 2009.
  47. ^ Highfield, Roger (16 October 2001). "Colonies in space may be only hope, says Hawking". The Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved 5 August 2007.
  48. ^ a b c "Stephen Hawking warns over making contact with aliens". BBC News. 25 April 2010. Retrieved 24 May 2010.
  49. ^ Hickman, Leo (25 April 2010). "Stephen Hawking takes a hard line on aliens". The Guardian. Retrieved 24 February 2012.
  50. ^ "Hawking takes zero-gravity flight". BBC News. 27 April 2007. Retrieved 17 June 2012.
  51. ^ "Physicist Hawking experiences zero gravity". CNN. 26 April 2007. Archived from the original on 4 May 2007. Retrieved 4 May 2007.
  52. ^ a b Sample, Ian (15 May 2011). "Stephen Hawking: 'There is no heaven; it's a fairy story'". The Guardian. Retrieved 17 May 2011.
  53. ^ Burgess, Anthony (29 December 1991). "Towards a Theory of Everything". The Observer. p. 42. Though A Brief History of Time brings in God as a useful metaphor, Hawking is an atheist
  54. ^ Adams, Tim (4 April 2004). "A Brief History of a First Wife". The Observer. Retrieved 5 March 2012.
  55. ^ Stewart, Phil (31 October 2008). "Pope sees physicist Hawking at evolution gathering". Reuters. Retrieved 22 May 2009.
  56. ^ "Stephen Hawking: Heaven Is A Myth". The Huffington Post. 16 May 2011. Retrieved 24 February 2012.
  57. ^ Warman, Matt (17 May 2011). "Stephen Hawking tells Google 'philosophy is dead'". The Telegraph. Retrieved 17 June 2012.
  58. ^ Radford, Tim (31 July 2009). "How God propelled Stephen Hawking into the bestsellers lists". The Guardian. Retrieved 5 March 2012.
  59. ^ "Man must conquer other planets to survive, says Hawking". Daily Mail. 13 June 2006. Retrieved 16 February 2012.
  60. ^ a b c d e f g h i "Books". Stephen Hawking Official Website. Retrieved 28 February 2012.
  61. ^ "Black Holes and Baby Universes". Kirkus Reviews. 20 March 2010. Retrieved 18 June 2012.
  62. ^ "A Brief History of Time: Synopsis". Errol Morris. Retrieved 18 June 2012.
  63. ^ "Stephen Hawking's Universe". PBS. Retrieved 26 June 2012.
  64. ^ "The Hawking Paradox". BBC. Retrieved 9 February 2012.
  65. ^ "Stephen Hawking's Sci Fi Masters". Science Channel. Retrieved 26 June 2012.
  66. ^ "Master of the Universe". Channel 4. Retrieved 4 March 2012.
  67. ^ "Into the Universe with Stephen Hawking". Discovery Channel. Retrieved 25 April 2010.
  68. ^ "Brave New World with Stephen Hawking". Channel 4. Retrieved 18 June 2012.

Bibliography

Further reading

External links

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