Stephen William Hawking
Stephen Hawking was the greatest scientist, theoretical physicist. He was paralyzed by motor neuron disease. Despite his paralysis and loss of speech, he is the author of a number of scientific works and remains to this day one of the greatest people in history.
Stephen Hawking was born on January 8, 1942 in Oxford. Stephen had a big family. Hawking had two younger sisters and an adopted brother.
Stephen received a good education: he graduated from Oxford University, received a degree of doctor of philosophy. In 1973, the scientist even visited the USSR. He visited Moscow, where he met with Soviet scientists and participated in an international seminar on quantum theory of gravity.
Stephen Hawking is one of the founders of quantum cosmology. His main field of research is cosmology and quantum gravity. Its main achievements include the application of thermodynamics to the description of black holes and the development of the theory that black holes "evaporate" due to the phenomenon called Hawking radiation.
The scientist was actively engaged in the popularization of science. One of the famous works of Hawking was his book "A brief history of time", which gained great popularity. He stated that "life on Earth is at risk from a sudden nuclear war, a genetically engineered virus, global warming, or other dangers humans have not yet thought of".
Already in the early 1960s Hawking began to show signs of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, which subsequently led to paralysis. After the diagnosis of the disease, doctors believed that he had only two and a half years to live, but the disease did not progress very quickly, and he began to use the stroller only in the late 1960s.
In 1985, Stephen Hawking fell seriously ill, he had pneumonia. After several operations, he had a tracheostomy, and Hawking lost the ability to speak. Mechanical friends modified Stephen's wheelchair, installing on it an onboard computer with a speech synthesizer, which Hawking controlled first with the help of the index finger of his right hand, and later-the facial cheek muscle, in front of which he fixed the sensor. Voice, which spoke Hawking, had an American accent and at the time of his death for many years was not created for other similar devices; Hawking refused to change it, because he had long been accustomed to perceive it as his own.
Hawking died at the age of 76 at his home in Cambridge on the night of 14 March 2018 after complications caused by amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. His family made a statement of their grief. He was buried on June 15, 2018 after cremation at Westminster Abbey in London.
02.12.2018