Stephen William Hawking was born on January 8, 1942, in Oxford, England. His father, a respected researcher in tropical medicine, encouraged Stephen to pursue a career in medicine. However, Stephen found biology and medicine imprecise and turned instead to mathematics and physics. Despite not being a standout student at St. Alban’s School or later at Oxford University, he had a natural hold of mathematical and physical concepts, often doing very little schoolwork but still performing well. He enjoyed taking things apart at home out of curiosity, though he admitted that they did not always go back together. Although his early school years were difficult, marked by unhappiness and limited success in sports, he graduated from Oxford in 1962 with first-class honours in physics and began postgraduate studies at Cambridge University.
Starting graduate school at Cambridge was a pivotal moment in Hawking’s life. It was there that he began studying cosmology, which helped focus his academic interests. However, this period was also marked by personal struggle. He was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s disease, a progressive neurological condition that eventually left him confined to a wheelchair. Despite the grim prognosis, his abilities were recognised at Cambridge, and he was encouraged to continue his studies. His marriage in 1965 was a turning point emotionally; it gave him a renewed will to live and pursue his scientific career. Hawking earned his PhD in 1966 and began a lifelong research and teaching relationship with Cambridge.
Hawking’s first major contribution to physics came through his collaboration with Roger Penrose, leading to the theory of singularities. A singularity refers to a point in space or time where certain properties, like gravity, become infinite. These are found at the centre of black holes, the final stage of massive collapsing stars. Hawking extended Penrose’s work and demonstrated that the entire universe likely began as a singularity. According to his findings, the matter in the universe was once concentrated in a single, incredibly dense point, which then exploded in the Big Bang, about 10 to 20 billion years ago. This supported the Big Bang theory over the competing steady-state theory. However, the Big Bang theory was still not accepted by all cosmologists. Working with mathematician Roger Penrose, Hawking realised that black holes were like the Big Bang in reverse, and that meant the math he used to describe black holes also described the Big Bang. It was a beautiful moment showing that the Big Bang really happened. As his body deteriorated, Hawking's career was taking off.
Hawking’s research on black holes significantly expanded scientific understanding of these mysterious entities. He studied the outer edge of black holes, known as the event horizon, and proved that the surface area of the event horizon could only increase, not decrease—especially when two black holes merge. One of his most surprising discoveries was that black holes can emit radiation, now known as Hawking radiation, challenging the previous belief that nothing could escape a black hole. He also theorised the existence of mini-black holes that may have formed in the early universe. However, the
In the 1980s, Hawking turned to one of Einstein’s great unanswered questions, the unified field theory, which aims to explain the four fundamental forces of nature in one framework. A complete theory would not only describe the forces of the universe but also the conditions at its beginning. Hawking famously said that understanding this theory would allow humans to know the mind of God. However, grand unified theories describe the interactions of quarks and leptons within the same theoretical structure. This gives rise to the possibility that quarks can decay to leptons and specifically that the proton can decay. Early attempts at a GUT predicted that the proton’s lifetime must be in the region of 1032 years.
As Hawking’s physical condition worsened, his intellectual achievements only grew. In 1988, he published the groundbreaking bestseller. A Brief History of Time and the Big Bang to Black Holes, which explained complex scientific ideas in an accessible language. The book sold over a million copies and topped nonfiction bestseller lists for over a year. He followed it up with Black Holes and Baby Universes and Other Essays in 1993, which combined scientific perceptions with reflections on his personal life.
He continued collaborating with Penrose, coauthoring The Nature of Space and Time in 1996, where they debated whether the universe has boundaries and if it will continue expanding. Hawking said yes to the first and no to the second, while Penrose disagreed. They joined forces again in 1997 to publish The Large, the Small, and the Human Mind. In 2002, Hawking celebrated the release of another popular book that is named as The Universe in a Nutshell.
Despite his worsening health, Hawking remained active in both academic and public life. He continued to travel, give lectures, and participate in book tours. To many people around the world, particularly those with disabilities, Stephen Hawking became a symbol of resilience and intellectual brilliance. His ability to defy the odds and contribute profoundly to science, while battling a life-threatening condition, left an indelible mark on humanity. However, Hawking wanted to explain his work to the public and to make some money to provide for his family as his health declined. A Brief History of Time was a best-seller for four years. Hawking believes its success is down to giving people access to great philosophical questions, but acknowledges human interest boosted sales. The book went on to sell over nine million copies. It turned Hawking into a celebrity and transformed his life.
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