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HomeOpinionStephen Hawking leaves us with three important legacies

Stephen Hawking leaves us with three important legacies

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Hawking’s growing knowledge about the universe, loss of bodily control, and the fragility of life pushed him to take confident stands on subjects dear to him.

Stephen Hawking, possibly the most famous living scientist in the world, died a happy man at the age of 76. His peaceful passing occurred in his home at Cambridge, an institution he first made his own after remarking to his undergraduate oral (viva) examiner in Oxford: “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.”

Hawking is known today for several things: his countless pathbreaking contributions to theoretical physics that has shaped our understanding of the universe today, his outreach for motor neurone disease, his guest appearances in TV shows through decades of pop culture, his sharp wit and sense of humour, and of course, his book A Brief History of Time, that was an inspiration and a foray into physics for many an engineer today.

Perhaps what makes Hawking most compelling as a human being is his life, peppered with identifiable journeys despite his overarching academic excellence. His achievements have always come in cycles, a perfect embodiment of an individual’s life’s sine curves: achieving success, feeling superior, then come crashing back down to earth.

Boy wonder

Hawking was an intelligent child, graduating his exams as a ten-year-old, earlier than his peers. He continued outsmarting others well into his teens, developing a plethora of extra-curricular interests that occupied his attention, earning the nickname “Einstein”.

However, he struggled in his later school years academically. He then focussed again on his books and eventually enrolled at Oxford. He found his undergraduate subjects easy and boring, and almost despised his college until he joined the rowing team. As the coxswain responsible for steering a boat, he derived his thrill from exercising control by making the rowers facing him drive blind into dangerous waters and steering them safely out.

His recklessness and cockiness, accompanied by interest in music and religion, made him very popular among his peers, but his grades steadily dropped in the background. His dream of studying cosmology at Cambridge was almost destroyed, rescued only by sheer pluck at the oral exam, and the fact that his teachers recognised that he was far more capable than numbers on papers indicate.

Flourishing genius, crumbling body

Upon entering Cambridge, the wave he was riding high on crashed twice over — first, when he didn’t get the advisor he felt entitled to, and second, when he was diagnosed with motor neurone disease at the age of 21 and given 24 months to live. He slipped into depression and gave up on his research, but realising the disease wasn’t really taking over as quickly as it was expected to, jumped back into it with vigour.

He focussed on singularities in general relativity and the blossoming Big Bang theory. Two years after his diagnosis, despite not being able to stand or speak by himself anymore, he knew he was going to live. His personal redemption came when he publicly challenged the advisor he couldn’t get — the noted astronomer Fred Hoyle — and the Big Bang theory was finally accepted in the scientific community as a better model for the birth of the universe than Hoyle’s alternative, the Steady State theory.

He quickly went back to his coxswain self, developing an unfavourable reputation for being brash and abrasive, but also cultivating brilliance, all the while becoming increasingly paralysed physically.

The progression of the disease — also known today as ALS (of ice bucket challenge fame) and Lou Gehrig’s Disease — was a great impediment to Hawking’s mind. By the time he turned 30 in 1972, he could barely walk, write, or speak. Having the full support of his wife, Jane, he was determined to not let his disability overrule his life. He refused to be treated differently, and indeed, throughout his later life, spoke much about stigma associated with disability for lack of awareness.

Initially apprehensive about taking up a wheelchair, he embraced it fully after a dispute with Cambridge about the cost of a ramp for him, and the knowledge that it let him drive recklessly around campus. He loved the attention.

His work started to focus around the perplexing new subject of black holes and his yearly list of scientific accolades and published books made him a growing celebrity, the image of him in a wheelchair eventually becoming a permanent fixture in the media. His towering reputation was notorious and he often had to check his ego by going back on his own previous confidently pronounced results. The most famous of such instances — and one of his biggest contributions to physics — is the phenomenon of black holes emitting radiation, which was previously declared by him as impossible. Today, we call this Hawking Radiation.

His fame and eminence grew steadily. But as his disease took over most of his body, his temperament worsened. His personal relationships turned sour, and at one point, his wife was faced with the dilemma of having to turn off his life support. In the last few years of his life, Hawking lost nearly all physical ability. He could only control his cheek muscle, which he used to both move his wheelchair as well as speak through his machine.

He maintained a positive, informed outlook on life; he often said that he was happier and more fulfilled than he had been before he was diagnosed with ALS. He travelled all over the world and never lost his sense of humour.

His growing knowledge about the universe, loss of bodily control, and the fragility of life pushed him to take confident stands on subjects dear to him. He spoke out against the invasion of Iraq, supported nuclear disarmament, and campaigned for universal health care; he talked as often as he could about climate change and science communication, and actively engaged in outreach for ALS and disability. He took part in the ice bucket challenge, experienced weightlessness in Zero Gravity Corporation’s modified Boeing 727 jet, placed hilarious public bets with fellow scientists, guest starred in popular shows like The Simpsons and The Big Bang Theory, and famously drew our attention to our own country’s lack of infrastructure when he couldn’t drive his wheelchair to our proud national monuments.

Hawking leaves us today with three important legacies: the need to fulfil the eternal quest to understand the universe, the need to recognise the fate and future of humanity and act on it, and most importantly, the urgent need to make our own world a better place for our fellow human beings.

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1 COMMENT

  1. Sandhya – This is one of the best written articles on Hawking that I have seen today. I have read more than a few of your articles over the last few weeks and the quality of your writing is clearly a shining light in the mediocrity that is the Indian media. Hope to see many more such articles from you in the future.

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