In the summer of 1990, an audience of about eight hundred gathered in a large lecture hall at Northeastern University in Boston for a free public speech given by Stephen Hawking. He gave his speech by playing the lecture he had previously recorded with his computer synthesized voice, while sitting in his motorized wheel chair in the middle of the large stage, looking small and vulnerable. During his visit at Northeastern, Professor Hawking also took time for several smaller gatherings with students. As the students asked him questions, they would quietly wait the eight to fifteen minutes it would take him to compose his answers by manipulating a computer cursor with his crippled right hand, spelling out each word letter by letter. The fact that Stephen Hawking, even though he is severely handicapped, can command such large audiences and reverential attitudes from students is because he is considered the most important theoretical physicist since Albert Einstein and the most important scientist alive (Rogers 10C).
Stephen Hawking, telling about his birth in Oxford, England, says, "I was born on January 8, 1942, exactly three hundred years after the death of Galileo. However, I estimate that about two hundred thousand other babies were also born that day. I don't know whether any of them were later interested in astronomy." However, his work in school did not foretell as bright a future as the day of his birth indicated. During his secondary education he never was more than halfway up the class, but he explains, "It was a very bright class." Stephen and his school friends had a wide area of interests and would have discussions, not only on things boys are usually interested in such as radio-controlled models, but also on subjects such as physics and speculating about the origin of the universe and if it required a God to create it. While he took it as a matter of fact that he would go into scientific research, it wasn't until he was thirteen or fourteen that he decided that he wanted to do research in physics. His father wanted him to study chemistry, which Stephen enjoyed because of the unexpected things that happened -- like explosions. However, he chose physics, even though it often bored him by being so easy and obvious, because it was the most fundamental science. He wanted to explore the far depths of the universe and maybe come to an understanding of where we came from and why we are here. He figured that would only be possible through physics and astronomy (Hawking, Black Holes 1-11).
While Stephen Hawking was attending Oxford University, he found the work boring because he had very little difficulty solving the physics and mathematic problems that were given to him. As a result, deserved or not, he managed to create the impression that he was a lazy, difficult student, scruffy dresser, and more interested in drinking and partying than in his studies. This almost caught up with him as he finished his term of study at Oxford. He wanted to study for his Ph.D. in cosmology at Cambridge University, which required a first-class honours degree, the highest achievement at Oxford. Students were given wide latitude in which questions they answered on the final tests. Because of his natural intuitive understanding of theoretical physics, Hawking decided to attempt only the theoretical questions, which were easy for him, and to bypass those requiring detailed factual knowledge. When the results were announced he was on the borderline between a First and a Second, which meant that a personal interview with the examiners would determine the honours degree he would receive. Dr. Robert Berman, his tutor at the University, believes that the examiners were intelligent enough to see that Stephen was cleverer than they were. But it could have been the way he answered the chief examiner's question about his plans for the future by saying, "If you award me a First, I will go to Cambridge. If I receive a Second, I shall stay in Oxford, so I expect you will give me a First." He went to Cambridge (White and Gribbin 53-55).
It was at Cambridge that Stephen Hawking started to notice that he was having difficulty in simple tasks like untying his shoelaces. He found himself bumping into things, feeling that his legs would give way under him, and sometimes his speech would slur as if he were drunk. He was diagnosed as having amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, known as ALS and as Lou Gehrig's Disease. He was twenty-one when the doctors gave him only two more years to live. During the next two years he didn't see much point in working very hard on his degree. However, two important events happened to change his attitude. He met "a very nice girl" named Jane Wilde, and he realized, after two years, that his disease was not that much worse. His life was going quite well for him; and when he got engaged, he found a whole new reason to work on his degree. "But," he explains, "in order to get married, I needed a job, and in order to get a job, I needed a Ph.D." He received it at the age of twenty-three (Hawking, Brief History 49).
Thirty-one years have passed since Dr. Hawking received his Ph.D. from Cambridge University. Since that time he has pushed back the boundaries of man's understanding of the Universe, black holes, and the origin of the Universe. He now holds the position of Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge University, the chair that once was held by Isaac Newton. While Professor Hawking has established himself on the cutting edge of theoretical physics and is well respected within the scientific community, that is not what has made him the most popular scientist of our time.
Foremost, it is his desire, as a teacher, to share his universe with others. In 1984 he finished the first draft of a book about the Universe which contains only one equation, Einstein's relativity formula E = mc2. He expressed the goal of the book this way:
I was sure that nearly everyone was interested in how the universe operates, but most people cannot follow mathematical equations -- I don't care much for equations myself. This is . . . because I don't have an intuitive feeling for equations. Instead, I think in pictorial terms, and my aim in the book was to describe these mental images in words, with the help of familiar analogies and a few diagrams. In this way, I hoped that most people would be able to share in the excitement . . ." (Black Holes 35)
As a testament that he accomplished that goal, his book, A Brief History of Time, as of February 1993 was on The New York Times best-seller list for 53 weeks, and on The Sunday Times of London list for 205 weeks. At week 184 it went into the Guinness Book of Records for achieving the most appearances on that list. As of April 1993 it was in its fortieth hardcover and nineteenth paperback printing in the United States, sold more than 5.5 million copies, and was translated into thirty-three languages.
Another reason Professor Hawking has captured the attention and the hearts of the public is the vision of a severely physically handicapped individual
becoming so successful. In spite of nature denying him the use of his physical body, he has made tremendous contributions, through the use of his mind, to our understanding of the universe in which we live. Currently Professor Hawking is working on Einstein's dream. Albert Einstein spent the last part of his life looking for the unified theory. That is the theory that could be used to predict all events in the Universe by combining quantum and Newtonian physics with the theory of relativity. It could be that Stephen Hawking will figure it out. But, maybe the greatest contribution that he has given to us is showing that one who is physically the least among us, may be at the same time, intellectually the greatest.
Hawking, Stephen. Black Holes and Baby Universes and Other Essays. New York: Bantam, 1993.
---. A Brief History of Time. New York: Bantam, 1988.
Rogers, Tony. "Hawking's Brilliant in Class." The Jonesboro Sun 10 June 1990: 10C.
White, Michael, and John Gribbin. Stephen Hawking. New York: Dutton, 1992.