Life and Career of Dr. Stephen Hawking - Research Paper Example

? Stephen Hawking Jerry T. Ciacho This is a research paper that delves into the life of theoretical physicist and physical cosmologist, Dr. Stephen William Hawking. It will look into his early life and education in among the most prominent and prestigious universities. Furthermore, this paper will chronicle the subsequent career and profession that he has as a theoretical physicist, which in turn, made him into an academic and scholastic celebrity. During his career of many years, he has accomplished numerous achievements and this paper will name and exemplify these attainments and successful discoveries. In addition to his great contribution to theoretical physics, applied mathematics and physical cosmology, this research paper will also take a look at his different awards, both national and international. In his life, Dr. Stephen Hawing has also written several books and publications that have shaped and influenced greatly the world of science and the views on how the universe we have came to be. Although stricken with illness that changed his life forever, Stephen Hawking has not allowed it to hinder him from success and is presently still considered as one of the greatest and most prominent man of science. Stephen Hawking Stephen Hawking was born on the eighth of January in 1942 in the county town of Oxford, in England. This date was exactly on the three hundredth death anniversary of Italian scientist and astronomer, Galileo Galilei, a source of pride for the illustrious physicist. Stephen was born into the world in a family of sages. His father was Dr. Frank Hawking, a research biologist who was the head of the parasitological division at the NIMR which stands for National Institute for Medical Research. His mother was Isobel Hawking. When only a small number of women considered earning college degrees, Isobel, a Scottish woman, worked her way into Oxford University in the 1930s, one of, if not the most prominent and prestigious university of all time, making her part of the earliest female student of the institution. Stephen was born in the wrong time as there was a great political crisis and his parents at that time were not earning much money. The residence of his parents was located in north London but Oxford was regarded as a more suitable place for childbirth as this was during World War II and it was deemed safer and more secured in Oxford than in north London. This was due to the fact that London was being attacked by German air forces during the time of his birth. German missiles were striking the streets everywhere. After Frank and Isobel had their first baby boy, they moved back to London. Stephen Hawking was the eldest among his siblings. He had a brother who was adopted named Edward and two younger sisters, Mary and Philippa. In 1950, when Hawking was only a boy of eight years, they moved to a nearby town, approximately twenty miles to the north of London, in St. Albans. There, in St. Albans High School for Girls, he was schooled. At that time, it was permitted for boys to study in an exclusive girl’s school until they were ten years old. While not exceptional or extraordinary, Stephen was a bright young student who did well in his studies. Encouraged and motivated by his teacher in mathematics, Stephen always had a keen eye for science. He wanted to pursue mathematics as his field of course for college. However, in view of the fact that his father had wanted him to study medicine instead and in University College in Oxford where his father was an alumnus where they did not offer a mathematics course, he took up Natural Science specializing in Physics there as an alternative, earning a scholarship. He did not give his full and complete time and effort into it since this was not exactly his preference, but nonetheless was awarded a first class honors degree in Natural Science. After, he went to Cambridge University, another best and leading universities in England and in the world. There he spent his time doing a lot of research in Cosmology, the science that looks into the origin and the growth of the universe. No one was working on that field during the time in the university. At approximately almost immediately after his arrival in Cambridge, Hawing began showing symptoms of Lou Gehrig’s disease, scientifically known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or ALS for short. This is a form of motor neuron illness, which would charge him an expense of just about every control of his nerves and muscles. During his early years at the university, he was losing his balance and once fell over a flight of stairs. However, once the illness had become stable and with the assistance of Dennis William Sciama, his tutor, he came back to work on his doctoral degree. After earning his PhD, Hawking received numerous notable awards and honors. He was voted as among the youngest Fellows of the Royal Society in the year of 1974, when he was only thirty two years old. He also became a Commander of the Order of the British Empire eight years later in 1982 and became a Companion of Honour in 1989. Currently, he is one of the members of the Board of Sponsors of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. By the year 1974, he agreed to become a visiting professor at Caltech, or California Institute of Technology. There he worked with Kip Thorne, an American theoretical physicist as well and a longtime friend and colleague of Hawking and American astronomer, cosmologist, science popularize, science communicator, author and astrophysicist Carl Sagan. Kip, at that time, was a faculty member of the university. As he was diagnosed with the illness that continued to worsen, the doctors had predicted that Hawking would only probably have two to three more years more and would not survive more than that. Although he was later almost completely paralyzed from head to foot, Stephen Hawking never gave up and saw hope. He kept on going and proved the doctors wrong. Although now paralyzed and even though he uses voice synthesizers to “talk”, he has not wasted the many years of education that he has earned in Oxford and Cambridge, and continued his career as a theoretical physicist and physical cosmologist. Hawking’s primary and foremost subject and area of research is quantum gravity and theoretical cosmology. Throughout his whole career, he has accomplished many things and has innovated many methods or approaches relating to these fields of science. In the later years of the 1960s, working hand in hand with colleague and friend Roger Penrose, they together created a complicated arithmetic representation or model based on Einstein’s theory of general relativity. This paved the way for Hawking when he proved the existence and presence of a gravitational singularity in space-time continuum. In addition, he provided evidence for the no-hair theorem, a proposition regarding black holes, in which John Archibald Wheeler was partly an originator. Hawking moreover proposed upon the investigation and examination of the emanation of gamma rays that subsequent to the prevailing Big Bang theory, there was a formation of primal small black holes. Along with John Bardeen and Brandon Carter, Stephen Hawking put forward the laws of black hole mechanics. With this, he was giving a picture of a correspondence with thermodynamics. By 1974, he figured out and computed the Bekenstein-Hawking radiation, the subatomic particles that black holes produce with heat, give off, until their energy wears out, and evaporate. In partnership with Jim Hartle, Hawking created a model wherein the cosmos did not have any boundaries in space-time, therefore infinite. Despite the fact that, initially, the suggestion that the universe had no periphery envisaged a universe that is closed, discussions and deliberations with the PI or Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics Director Neil Turok changed their conviction. It made them realize that this no-boundary implication is coherent with a universe that isn’t closed as well. In 2006, Hawking suggested another theory called the “top-down cosmology.” This theory states that the universe did not have any distinctive initial shape. Thus, it is inapt to endeavor to put together a premise that foretells the universe's present arrangement from a specific original state. Top-down cosmology implies a probable answer to the question in regards with the fine-tuning of the universe. This theory offers an anthropical elucidation for the reason why our universe is suitable for the existence of matter and life, without having to bring into play a group of multiple universes. Stephen Hawking has also contributed many other scientific research and analysis in many areas such as the study of quantum cosmology, cosmological inflation, large N cosmology, configuration and composition of the universe, baby universes, the nature of space and time, supergravity, gravitational radiation, wormholes and so many more. In addition to all this, Stephen Hawking also mentioned at a lecture, a conjecture on the reality of extraterrestrial existence. He said, "Primitive life is very common and intelligent life is fairly rare." This surmise is one of Hawking’s most debatable and most controversial assumptions or “theories.” Hawking has affirmed that he is nearly convinced that creatures from outer space exist and applies an arithmetical foundation for this supposition. He not only believes in the existence of aliens, but also informs that some of might be intellectual and can endanger the Earth. He believes that people ought to avoid contact with aliens rather than trying to make contact with them. From all of Hawking’s theories and discoveries that changed and shaped science greatly, he has also influenced the public by appearing in different television shows. He has also been portrayed in many films and movies. He has appeared in Star Trek: The Next Generation as a hologram, in Late Night with Conan O’Brien, Discovery Channel . Aside from that, he has also appeared as a cartoon character in animated shows such as the satirical parody show, The Simpsons, American television series, The Family Guy, and science fiction animated sitcom, Futurama. There have been documentaries produced about his life and accomplishments. Appearing or portrayed in cartoon comic strips such as Dilbert, and in many other shows and even in movies such as The Superhero Movie, Stephen Hawking has greatly had some bearing on the public and is known extensively worldwide. Even in songs, his voice from the vocal synthesizer is heard, such as in Pink Floyd’s “Keep Talking” as well as in “Intro: The Party Zone” by Norweigan punk rock band, Turbonegro. In 2007, distinguished English artist and sculptor, Ian Walters, sculpted a statue of him at the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology in the University of Cambridge. A building in Cambridge University and a museum in El Salvador is also named after him. In his belief that his knowledge and his works should be accessible to everyone, he has written numerous books and publications for the public. Among them are a series of books of popular science, with some becoming best-sellers and others still exceedingly popular globally. He also has written children’s books, with the help of his daughter. Hawkings is also known for his clever wit and humor. Stephen Hawking, throughout his journey with the disability that he acquired when he was only twenty-one years old, got his inspiration from his first wife, Jane Hawking in which they were married until 1991 when his escalating disability and the demands of prominence and fame caused their separation, according to reports. Jane and Stephen had three children, Robert, Timothy and Lucy. Later on, Hawking married his nurse, Elaine Mason in 1995 who was the previous wife of one of the designers of Hawking’s early versions of his talking computer. Hawking’s children were at first on bad terms with him, but later were reconciled with him in 2007. Hawking is also an atheist, but mentions God in a figurative logic and in many instances says that God’s existence is unnecessary for the explanation of the universe’s origin. In an interview for a newspaper in 2004, Stephen was asked regarding his IQ. He replied by saying, “I have no idea. People who boast about their I.Q. are losers." However, when he was asked, "Are you saying you are not a genius?” Hawking responded to the interviewer saying, "I hope I'm near the upper end of the range." References Boslough, J. (1989). Stephen Hawking's Universe: An Introduction to the Most Remarkable Scientist of Our Time. New York, NY: Avon Books. Filkin, D. (1997). Stephen Hawking's Universe: The Cosmos Explained. New York: BasicBooks. Larsen, K. M. (2007). Stephen Hawking: A Biography (Pbk. ed.). Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus Books. Henderson, H. (1995). Stephen Hawking. San Diego, CA: Lucent Books. McPherson, S. S. (2007). Stephen Hawking. Minneapolis, MN: Twenty-First Century Books. Professor Stephen W. Hawking. (n.d.). Professor Stephen W. Hawking. Retrieved December 3, 2011, from http://www.hawking.org.uk/ Simon, S. (1991). Stephen Hawking: Unlocking the Universe. Minneapolis, Minn.: Dillon Press. Bankston, J. (2005). Stephen Hawking: Breaking the Boundaries of Time and Space. Berkeley Heights, NJ: Enslow Publishers. Read More