Stephen Hawking: the man of the stars

Stephen Hawking: the man of the stars

Stephen Hawking: the man of the stars

Last update: 03 September, 2016

Stephen Hawking is probably the most famous living scientist of our time. His prestige can perhaps only be compared to that of Albert Einstein. The fame he enjoys is due to his theories about the origin of the universe and the laws of physics at this juncture.

However, his reputation also derives from the courage with which he struggles to get the better of the disease he suffers from. That condition hasn't been a hindrance in the busy life of this man with so many limitations. Indeed, someone thinks that this situation is precisely one of the reasons that led the media to consider him a real star.



"Turn your face towards the sun and you will not see the shadow"

--Helen Keller

One of his most famous books is "The Great History of Time", which became a best-seller in a short time for having sold more than 10 million copies; later, a film was also made. Hawking is not only admirable for his intellectual achievements, but also for having achieved them despite the serious difficulties he faces. No doubt, his influence is the result of his vulnerability, his courage and his genius.

Hawking, a prodigious mind

Stephen Hawking was born in January 1942 in London, exactly three hundred years after the death of Galileo Galilei, an anecdote with which he often jokes. He belongs to an eccentric family, according to Edward, his younger brother. His father was a doctor who spent most of his time in Africa, engaged in research.

Hawking is only a teenager when he decides to study mathematics and physics; for this he enrolled in Oxford at the age of 17. He is very popular with his classmates thanks to his intelligence and he doesn't seem to spend much time studying. He plays bridget and loves racing with his friends.



After many years, during which he does not show a particular dedication to study, he gets good grades. Hawking then chooses the Cambridge school, which requires an excellent average. During his interview, he expressed himself very sincerely: “If I get top marks, I go to Cambridge; if I only get a good grade, I stay in Oxford. I really hope you give me your best ". And so it was.

As a scientist, his career began more than 25 years ago, right at the University of Cambridge. He is perhaps the scientist who has applied himself most of all to bring us closer to understanding the universe. His theoretical work on black holes, his progress on the origin and nature of the universe are groundbreaking and undoubtedly revolutionary.

A model to follow

At the age of 21, he was diagnosed with a degenerative disease known as "motor neuron disease" or MND. This discomfort confines him to a wheelchair for most of his life; but Hawking does not allow this to be an obstacle to his scientific development. In fact, the disease frees him from the duties of routine, allowing him to devote himself entirely to research.

Hawking avoids talking about his physical problems and his personal life. He wants to be remembered as a scientist, as a writer, as a scientific popularizer, like a person on a par with another, with his dreams, his impulses, his desires and his ambitions, elements that support each individual.

At the time of diagnosis, he is also told that the disease mainly affects older people, even if he is only in his twenties. The disease progresses very quickly and doctors give him a maximum of 2 years to live. The man of the stars therefore enters a serious depression and devotes himself to always listening to Wagner.



As the years go by, Hawking's health stabilizes. He decides to marry Jane Wilde, with whom he conceives three children. He continues his work as a researcher, also overlapping the devastating physical deterioration generated by the disease. In 1969 he was definitively relegated to a wheelchair, which made him completely dependent on another person.


A man who surpasses himself

In 1979 he was chosen as Lucasian professor of mathematics at the University of Cambridge, a role that Isaac Newton had also assumed at the time. After that, he undergoes an emergency tracheotomy and in 1985 he completely loses the possibility of speaking: his only means of communication is reduced to a speech synthesizer adapted to his wheelchair.

An anecdote that Hawking tells us with good humor concerns one of his visits to the Vatican: at the end of a cosmology congress held at the Holy See, they had an audience with the Pope. later evolution of the universe, claiming that it is a creation and a work of God.

Hawking says he was happy that the Pope did not understand his speech which dealt with the question that "space-time is finite, but it has no limits of any kind". In other words, he had just argued that the universe had no beginning and that there was no moment of creation. For this reason he was happy that the Pope had not understood and says: “I had no intention of sharing the fate of Galileo Galilei”.


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