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Stephen Hawking playing himself on Star Trek: The Next Generation
Professor Stephen William Hawking, F.R.S. (born January 8, 1942) is one of the world's leading theoretical physicists. Hawking is Lucasian professor of Mathematics at Cambridge University (a post once held by Isaac Newton).
Hawking was born in Oxford, England to
Frank and Isobel Hawking as their first child. He was educated at St
Albans School, Hertfordshire and University
College, Oxford, where he obtained a First Class degree in Physics. He moved to Cambridge University to complete his PhD in cosmology.
His principal areas of research are cosmology and quantum gravity. His major contributions to the field of research included
his papers on the relationship between black holes and thermodynamics. His research indicated that black holes do not exist forever, but rather that virtual particle pairs created near their event
horizons cause them to "evaporate" over time in a process known as Hawking radiation. He is also known for his chronology protection conjecture which hypothesizes the theoretical impossibility of
closed timelike curves.
In spite of being severely disabled by Motor Neurone
Disease, he is highly active in physics, writing, and public life. He has used an electronic voice synesizer to communicate
since he had a tracheaoctomy in
1985 following a severe bout of bronchitis. Due to his desease, he is now almost completely inable to move. The computer system
attached to his wheelchair is operated by Hawking manually through a device called "Clicker", which lets him select words and
other options on his computer's screen, but can be controlled by head or eye movement as well. He was first diagnosed at the age
of 21, shortly before his first marriage. The doctors didn't give him more than perhaps two to three years by that time.
His two books A Brief History of Time and
The Universe in a Nutshell have
remained highly popular all over the world and are now classic best-sellers. Anyone interested in the universe, cosmos and how it
all began can read them: no previous knowledge in this field is required to enjoy these books.
In popular culture, he has become a widely admired figure as a
genius who has had a successful life despite his severe disability. He had a guest
appearance on an episode of the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation, playing poker
with Data, Albert Einstein, and Isaac Newton in the episode
"Descent, Part I." The animated television series The Simpsons and
Futurama have occasionally
featured him in episodes, and a character playing Hawking has appeared in the television series Dilbert. He also lent his voice to the Pink Floyd song
Keep Talking off The Division Bell. A parody
website even has a Hawking-like voice synthesizer rapping about physics [1]
From his first marriage with Jane Wilde Hawking he has three children, named Tim, Lucy and Robert. 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.
See also: Jacob Bekenstein, Roger Penrose, Kip S. Thorne,
gravitational singularity
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 Hermann Göring's anti-intellectual quote, "When I hear the word 'culture', I
reach for my Browning", which itself was from a play by German playwright
and Nazi Poet Laureate, Hanns Johst.
He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1974, appointed CBE in
1982 and became a Companion of Honour in 1989.
Publications
Technical
- The Large Scale
Structure of Spacetime with G F R Ellis
- ...and many more
Popular
N.B. On Hawking's website , he denounces the unauthorized publication of
The Theory of Everything and asks
consumers to boycott this book.
External links
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