Truly great minds are born once in a century, and the most prominent scholars of our time can be called Stephen Hawking. The life of this man was hard, but no hardship and misfortune could not break his will to live and powerful intellect. Hawking’s fascinating biography is a vivid example of how a person, if he wants, can do anything. Paralyzed, chained to a wheelchair, he has done for humanity almost more than anyone else.
In elementary school, the future scientist studied very poorly, he constantly lagged behind in academic performance. However, for the final exams he became the best student. Perhaps his classmates guessed about his future, because they called Stephen “Einstein”. Hawking’s father wanted his son to become a biologist. He, however, disliked biology throughout life. He wanted to become a mathematician, but since he was not in the chosen university of the Faculty of Mathematics, he decided to study physics. He visited Moscow twice, in 1973 and in 1981. Hawking was born exactly 300 years after the death of another great scientist – Galileo Galilei. And on the same day – January 8 (see interesting facts about Galilee). In his youth, the future scientist was engaged in sports rowing.
He was a professor of mathematics, however, he had never studied this science since he graduated from high school. Stephen Hawking was a staunch atheist. The scientist lost his ability to speak in 1985, after a throat operation. Friends gathered for him a speech synthesizer. By that time, Hawking’s only partially moving part of the body was the index finger on his right hand. Later, some mobility was preserved only in the muscle of one cheek.
He called the American military intervention in Iraq a war crime. It was thanks to Hawking that scientists managed to find out a huge amount of new information about black holes. The first signs of the disease, which subsequently paralyzed him, began to appear in Stephen Hawking at the age of twenty. Doctors argued that with such a diagnosis he would live at best for a couple of years two or three. However, the scientist lived more than 76 years. During his life he was married twice, but both marriages ended in divorce. He had three children.
Stephen Hawking’s dwelling was equipped with a smart home system. He controlled his functions with the help of a sensor fixed on the arm of his glasses and connected to the computer interface on his chair. In 2007, the scientist flew in zero gravity on a special aircraft. Two years later, he was supposed to fly into space, but in the end the flight was canceled. At one time he held the honorary position of Lukasovsky professor of mathematics at the University of Cambridge. Before him, it was occupied by only one person – Sir Isaac Newton. Hawking’s book “A Brief History of Time” kept on the publisher’s bestseller lists for 4.5 years – an absolute record. The scientist more than once starred in advertising and appeared in small cameos in TV shows and movies.
He all his life argued that the development of astronautics is crucial for the survival of mankind, as a species. Stephen Hawking never received the Nobel Prize. He himself stated that he did not expect it, since the prize is awarded for a specific discovery, and not a total lifetime contribution to science. He believed in the existence of alien life, arguing at the same time that a hypothetical meeting with representatives of extraterrestrial civilizations does not promise anything good to humanity. Stephen Hawking argued that the Universe has no limits. In 2007, he wrote and published a book for children “The Secret Key of George to the Universe”. The second wife of the scientist was a nurse who has been looking after him for many years. One of the threats to life on Earth Hawking considered the development of artificial intelligence.
