Geniuses are a rare gift to humankind. Without them the world wouldn’t be as we know it today. They dedicate their lives to looking beyond the surface and dare to ask the question why? And go on to find answers to questions that are considered unexplainable.
Theoretical physicist Stephen Hawkings has died at the age of 76. The physicist and author of A Brief History of Time has died at his home in Cambridge and will be dearly missed by the world. In a statement that confirmed his death at home in Cambridge, Hawking’s children said: “We are deeply saddened that our beloved father passed away today. He was a great scientist and an extraordinary man whose work and legacy will live on for many years. His courage and persistence with his brilliance and humour inspired people across the world. Source: New York Times.
Hawking’s first major breakthrough came in 1970, when he and Roger Penrose applied the mathematics of black holes to the universe and showed that a singularity, a region of infinite curvature in spacetime, lay in our distant past: the point from which came the big bang.
His scientific works included a collaboration with Roger Penrose on gravitational singularity theorems in the framework of general relativity and the theoretical prediction that black holes emit radiation, often called Hawking radiation. Hawking was the first to set out a theory of cosmology explained by a union of the general theory of relativity and quantum mechanics. He was a vigorous supporter of the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics.
He had a rare early-onset slow-progressing form of motor neurone disease (also known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or “ALS” and Lou Gehrig’s disease), that gradually paralysed him over the decades. Even after the loss of his speech, he was still able to communicate through a speech-generating device, initially through use of a hand-held switch, and eventually by using a single cheek muscle. He died on 14 March 2018 at the age of 76.
