STEPHEN HAWKING and His Science Life
Who is Stephen Hawking?
Stephen William Hawking was physicist, cosmologist, theorist and author. He was born in Oxford on 8th January 1942 into a family of doctors. And he died on 14th March 2018.
Stephen Hawking started his university education at University College, Oxford in 1959. His family was a consisted of doctors and they wanted him to be a doctor, but he wanted to study mathematics. He started physics because there was no mathematics depatment at Oxford at the time. His success in physics began with his entry to Oxford. In his third year at Oxford, he was awarded a first-class BA (Hons) Degree in physics. Then he traveled to Iranian with a friend to work in the field of physics.
1960s : A New Genius for the Scientific World
Stephen Hawking graduated from Oxford University with first place and went to Cambridge University to work in cosmology. He began his graduate work in October 1962 at Trinity Hall in Cambridge, he specialized in general relativity and cosmology. When he started his doctoral studies, there were a lot of theories in the physics community about the creation of the universe: Big Bang and Steady State Theories. He wrote on this subject in his doctoral dissertation in 1965. In 1966, his dissertation was approved, and then he received his doctorate in mathematics and theoretical physics.
After receiving his doctorate, he first became a research assistant. Then he started to work as an associate professor at Gonville and Caius College affiliated to Cambridge University.
And his essay “Singularities and the Geometry of Space-Time” shared top honours with one by Penrose to win that year’s prestigious Adams Prize.
1970s :A Golden Age for Stephen’s Academic Career and for the Field of Theoretical Physics in General
Stephen stepped into writing and theoreticism during this period. It has become more successful now and its name is heard more.
Stephen Hawking met Roger Penrose in 1965, and they published a joint article in 1970. In that paper, Stephen showed that Einstein’s general theory of relativity implied space and time would have a beginning in the Big Bang and an end in black holes. Hawking and Penrose developed a singularity theorem that proves this theory, and this led to Stephen’s ensuing fascination with black holes.
In 1973, Stephen Hawking published The Large Scale Structure of Space-Time, his first book. Then, he decided that the next step in his research would be to combine general relativity with quantum theory. To his disbelief, it seemed that emissions could emanate from a black hole’s event horizon, a revolutionary quantum effect that appeared to make a mockery of the laws of physics. In 1974 , this research was published by Nature as ‘Black hole explesions?’. Hawking’s this theory received great criticism when it was announced at a conference in Oxford. This widely accepted theory is known as Hawking Radiation.
Promoted to reader in Gravitational Physics in Cambridge. He became Professor of Gravitational Physics in 1977. Subsequently, he was appointed Lucasian Professor of Mathematics in 1979. Previouly held by Isaac Newton in 1669, this chair was awarded to Stephen in recognition of his ground-breaking scientific work on black holes. In 1979, Stephen Hawking was also awarded the first, prestigious Albert Einstein medal, in recognition of ‘scientific findings, works or publications related to Albert Einstein’.
1980s : Stephen Hawking as a Writer
During these years, Stephen Hawking achieved great success in terms of authorship and tried to cope with the ALS disease he was diagnosed with.
Jim Hartle and Stephen Hawking started working together. These two worked on the quantum dynamics of black holes and the quantum birth of the universe. Ideas related to these studies were first announced by Stephen Hawking at a conference held in the Vatican in 1981. Stephen argued at the conference that the four space dimensions of the universe, as a sphere, began with an infinitely curled form, and the quantum shift led to the emergence of the universe with three space dimensions and one time dimension that we have today. Stephen and Hartle, aptly called their model the no boundary wave function the first scientific model of the origin of the universe.
In 1982, a letter from Buckingham Palace arrived at Stephen’s family house in Cambridge to tell him he had been honoured with the award of a CBE (Commander of the British Empire). Also, the award heralded the first of what would turn out to be many meetings with Her Majesty the Queen over the decades to come.
During this period, despite his illness, Stephen continued to work with the device developed for him. During this period, he started writing his book A Brief History of Time, which made him famous all over the world. Stephen’s main goal in writing this book is to understand this book even by people who have nothing to do with science. It happened as he wanted. He published his book, on which he worked for six years, in 1988. This book surprisingly became a bestseller shortly after its publication. Its resounding success led to a spot on the UK best-selling list for a record-breaking 4.5 years, translation into over 40 languages and sales of over 20 million copies. Also, A Newsweek cover at the time described him as a ‘Master of the Universe’.
1990s : Stephen Hawking Who Has Achieved Great Success in Every Aspect
For Stephen Hawking, the 1990s were academically intense and very popular as a writer. He never stopped working academically.
In 1990, Stephen approached the controversial notion of whether time travel is allowed by the laws of physics utilising the concept wormholes, hypothetical tubes of space-time with lifelong friend, the physicist Kip Thorne. About 20 years later, he planned a party for his then-travelers. However, the party did not distribute the invitations until the date ended. Thus, only those who can travel back in time will know this and be able to participate. On the day of the party, Stephen waited, but no one came. As a result of this experiment he said, “I have proof that time travel is not possible. I have experimental evidence.” said.
2000’s : “Space, here I come !”
During this period, Stephen Hawking was awarded United State’s highest civilian award and experimented with gravity.
Hawking was invited by Richard Branson to travel on Branson’s first space flight. He immediately accepted this invite. Because he has always been interested in space and wanted to try this experience. But, he never got the chance to fly in space.
In April 2007, Stephen undertook a zero-gravity flight in a Boeing 727 jet in order to promote public interest in space travel and raise money for research into ALS. He was invited by Peter Diamandis. A keen advocate of the need for space travel to find alternative planets for human habitation, Stephen remained in the air for two hours and underwent eight zero-gravity dives. Allowing him to experience weightlessness and to be freed from his wheelchair. Afterwards, he quipped “Space, here I come. A zero-gravity flight is the first step towards space travel.”
In 2007, Stephen Hawking founded the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology, based in the Centre for Mathematical Sciences, University of Cambridge. More recently, the Centre launched the Stephen Hawking Programme ( a campaign to celebrate and memorialise Stephen’s life and work through a programme of teaching, research and outreach).
In 2009, he was awarded the US Presidential Medal of Freedom. He received the award from then President Barack Obama. The award is hightest civilian award in the United States.
2010’s : “It has been a glorious time to be alive…”
For Stephen Hawking, the term meant the last eight years of his life. Doctors told him that he had only two years to live in 1962. However, everything went against what was expected, and he had great success over the years.
Stephen won one of the two Breaktrough Prizes in Fundamental Physics for his discovery of Hawking radiation from black holes in 2013.
In 2014, release of The Theory of Everyting. The film is about Stephen’s life and got great critical acclaim.
In 2017, Stephen cauthored a paper with Malcolm Perrt and Andrew Strominger entitled ‘Soft Hair on Black Holes’, purporting to make progress towards an ultimate solution to the black hole information paradox. This article refuted Hawking’s earlier argument that information is irreversibly lost in black holes.
Professor Stephen Hawking died at his home in Cambridge on 14th March 2018. (This date is also the birthday of Einstein.) His memorial service held on 15th June 2018 in Westminster Abbey. His indomitable courage and persistence helped him conquer and delay death for more than five decades. He once said, “ I’m not afraid of death, but I’m in no hurry to die.I have so much I want to do first.”
In October 2018, John Murray published Brief Answers to the Big Questions. This has been a best seller in 45 countries and sold 2.5 million copies since publication.
Stephen Hawking Who Fought His Illness
During his doctoral training, he was diagnosed with ALS, a motor neurone disease (also known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis). Doctors told Stephen Hawking that he had two years to live, but his condition progressed more slowly than expected. Although he was affected by the disease at first, he returned to his studies thanks to his doctoral advisor, Dennis William Sciama. This illness left him paralyzed. He could only use one cheek muscle. This illness, which only put him in a wheelchair, later weakened his ability to speak. While visiting CERN in 1985, he contracted pneumonia and completely lost his voice during treatment. But even after he lost his speech, he communicated with people with the speech-generating device. He could use this device thanks to a handheld switch. In 2005, he lost his ability to move his hand muscles and controlled the device with the only cheek muscle he could use. Even his illness could not overcome his love for science.
The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance.It is the illusion of knowledge.”
Professor Stephen W. Hawking
REFERENCES
https://tr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Hawking
