Stephen+Hawking

Stephen Hawking  By: duncanm753 Early Life Stephen Hawking was born on January 8, 1942 exactly 300 years after the death of Galileo. Stephen was born in Oxford, England which was one of the safe towns in England from bombing because of a deal with the Germans. Stephen grew up in London and as a child he always had a very lively imagination. At the time of Stephen Hawking’s birth physicists were of a great demand. When Stephen was 8 the Hawkings moved to St. Albans, England. Stephen was hoping to attend Westminster school but unfortunately the Hawkings could not afford the tuition. Stephen would have to try for a scholarship to get in to the school. Again something very unfortunate occurred; Stephen fell ill on the day of the exam and was not able to attend Westminster. Stephen was forced to enter a private school in St. Albans. By the time of the early 60’s Stephen started to suffer from Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). This is a disease that slowly destroys the muscle and nerve systems. Stephen was forced to move around in a motorized wheelchair and soon lost the ability to speak and move all together. In 1965 Stephen attended Oxford University. Stephens disability did not keep him from marrying fellow student Jane Wilde in 1965 (marriage lasted until 1990).

Career Upon graduating Oxford Stephen went to Cambridge University to study theoretical cosmology and astronomy. After receiving his doctorate Stephen remained at Cambridge in their department of applied mathematics. All of Stephen’s accomplishments are made even more powerful because of his huge disability, normally (ALS) kills people after a short amount of time but Stephen is still living with it. In 1977 Stephen was appointed professor of gravitational physics and in 1979 was appointed Lucasian professor of mathematics (title previously held by Sir Isaac Newton). Scientific Achievements In 2008 Stephen Hawking attended a chair meeting of physicists. At the meeting Stephen Hawking claimed that black holes were not completely black but that they actually emitted radiation. Most everyone believed Stephen because of his detailed explanation, but one scientist thought Stephen was crazy and even sent Stephen an exclamation of why his theory was completely wrong. Stephen had this explanation published because he wanted the world to see how wrong or how right this scientist had been. To test this theory, scientists sent two small objects near a black hole. The two objects were special because one was programmed to annihilate the other no matter what. Once the first object was sucked in the other object had nothing to annihilate so it came back to earth. The object that came back to earth got close enough to the black hole to pick up traces of radiation from the black hole. Stephen’s theory was proven correct; the radiation that black holes emit is now called Hawking radiation. In 1977 Stephen was appointed professor of gravitational physics and in 1979 was appointed Lucasian professor of mathematics (title previously held by Sir Isaac Newton). Science Explained When a star burns off all of its nuclear radiation the star becomes a dead star. As the star dies it begins to implode upon itself causing an inescapable vacuum effect. As the star continues to implode upon itself it becomes what we know today as black hole. Once something has been sucked into a black hole it is instantly diminished to nothing. Nothing has ever escaped from inside of a black hole and almost certainly nothing ever will.

Fun Facts As a child Stephen had a fun and lively imagination. He liked to pretend he was different characters all the time. One time he even walked outside to the curb and claimed he was waiting for the bus that would take him home; he was on his front lawn. After Stephen was diagnosed with (ALS) he went through lots of physical therapy. Eventually Stephen was strong enough to hold a pen. Stephen loved to draw all the time and drew people mostly. Stephen is still living to this day and still has (ALS). It may be surprising to know that Stephen received poor grades in school despite his confusing scientific occupation. Despite his many ground breaking scientific achievements Stephen has never won the Nobel Prize.



Citations Henderson, Harry. //The Importance of Stephen Hawking// Ed. 2 San Diego, CA Lucent Books 1995 McDaniel, Melissa //Stephen Hawking Revolutionary Physicist// New York, Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishers, 1994 "**Stephen Hawking.**" //Britannica School.// Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 2013. Web. 19 Sep. 2013. < [|__http://school.eb.com/levels/middle/article/274795__] >. "**Stephen W. Hawking.**" //Britannica School.// Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 2013. Web. 19 Sep. 2013. < [|__http://school.eb.com/levels/high/article/39612__] >.