Riding Weak Nerves To The Cosmos: Hawking’s Astonishing Accomplishments
Stephen Hawking is a popular physicist that was born in 1942 in Oxford. He lived with a serious disease much longer than the doctors were able to tell how it was possible. Though confined to a wheelchair for decades, his resolve to continue with his professional career as a physicist was not jeopardized.
The British cosmologist and physicist have solved some of the puzzling mysteries of the universe. Everyone knows him as a genius. His characteristic computerized voice while sitting on the wheelchair is quite unique and connected only to him.
The Disability
The scientist suffered from Lou Gehrig disease at age 21 while studying for his doctorate degree at the Cambridge University. The disease is also called amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The disease attacks motor neurons, the cells that are in control of the muscles. People suffering from it experience weakness of the muscles, have problems with speech, swallowing, breathing and often become paralyzed.
His Astonishing Exploits
In spite of his medical condition, Stephen Hawking has achieved a great deal with cosmology, updating the science world about the state of the universe. He has unraveled many mysteries and rewritten some that people will live to make reference to. In his heroic achievements, the first book that brought him to the limelight was the book titled “A Brief History of Time” that simplified how the universe is. More than nine million copies of the book were sold globally. His other theories have brought more light to the concept of the Big Bang theory and the black hole.
His paralysis and confinement to a wheelchair never stopped him to keep working on his chosen career. His fame has taken him far and wide to many countries and he has met many great men including President Barack Obama.
In his career period, many publications and awards were received by the science genius. He worked on the singularity theorem and expanded the concept much later after his doctorate. The second law of black hole dynamic was postulated by him in 1970.
For a long successful 30 years period, Hawking held the mathematics post once held by Sir Isaac Newton at the Cambridge University before retiring in 2009. Today, a mention of the Hawking radiation in physics has written his name among the many great scientists in history. He was knitted by her majesty and he’s now Sir, Stephen Hawking.
According to Hawking, he tries to not see or think of limitation. In his words:
“I have had (Lou Gehrig’s disease) for practically all my adult life,” he says on his website. “Yet it has not prevented me from having a very beautiful family and being fruitful in my work.” “I try to lead as normal a life as possible and not think about my condition or regret the things it prevents me from doing, which are not that many”
His desire to get to space saw him go on a space simulator in 2007. Words will fail to fully describe the contribution Stephen Hawking, a man who has defied all odds against a chronic disease that ravaged his entire body. He died in May 2018 at the age of 76.
The story of Hawking can be compared to the achievement of Braun and that of Richard Branson of Virgin Group.
