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Hawking 1942 - 2018 (76)

There is a fundamental difference between religion, which is based on authority, and science, which is based on observation and reason. Science will win because it works.”


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Short History

of Time




Stephen Hawking was one of the greatest modern physicists. He was born in Oxford, where his mother had sought refuge from the German bombing of London, on January 8, 1942, at the 300th anniversary of Galileo's death and he died on March 14, 2018, at the 139th anniversary of Einstein's birth.

Both his parents had studied at Oxford, Steven from his student years showed a special skill in scientific subjects, although in general education he had low grades. He began his university studies at Oxford University with a scholarship at the age of 17. His first year of study was lonely and dedicated to study, from the second he joined social life, joined the rowing club, made friends and had relationships. The honorary degree he received was a ticket to postgraduate studies in cosmology at the University of Cambridge. His star was rapidly emerging in cosmology and astrophysics when he began to experience health problems such as awkward movements, slurred speech, increasing fatigue. At the age of 21 he was diagnosed with a neurone disease and a life expectancy of two years. Hawking was shocked and deeply depressed, when he saw a little boy dying of leukemia in the hospital, he realized that there were worse and he decided to do the best he could. He regained his optimism, got engaged to his beloved Jane, whom he later married, as he has said, Jane gave him a reason to live.

Although he lived his life in a wheelchair and spoke in a synthetic voice through a computer that read the movements of his eyelids - he inspired many other scientists with his groundbreaking ideas and became famous for his work on black holes, gravity and general relativity. He is the author of many popular books, most notably the "Short History of Time", which was published in 1988 and was translated into 40 languages.

Hawkins was an honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a lifelong member of the Episcopal Academy of Sciences, and a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest political award in the United States. He was also a professor of mathematics at the University of Cambridge between 1979 and 2009. He believed that the future of the human race was in space, that the planet earth would disappear and we should travel to other planets if we want to survive. Hawkins married twice and had three children, died at the age of 76; he lived 53 years more than the doctors had predicted.