A Brief History of Stephen Hawking Free Essays

Today I will introduce a famous and outstanding scientist to you. A brief history of Stephen Hawking. The main contents include four aspects Stephen William Hawking is an English theoretical physicist and cosmologist, whose scientific books and public appearances have made him an academic celebrity. We will write a custom essay sample on A Brief History of Stephen Hawking or any similar topic only for you Order Now Stephen William Hawking was born on 8 January 1942 (300 years after the death of Galileo) in Oxford, England. His parents’ house was in north London, but during the Second World War Oxford was considered a safer place to have babies. When he was eight, his family moved to St Albans, a town about 20 miles north of London. At 11 Stephen went to St Albans School, and when he was 17 he went on to University College, Oxford, his father’s old college. Stephen wanted to do Mathematics, although his father would have preferred medicine. Mathematics was not available at University College, so he did Physics instead. After three years and not very much work he was awarded a first class honours degree in Natural Science. Stephen then went on to Cambridge to do research in Cosmology, there was no-one working in that area in Oxford at the time. His supervisor was Denis Sciama, although he had hoped to get Fred Hoyle who was working in Cambridge. After gaining his Ph. D. he became first a Research Fellow, and later on a Professorial Fellow at Gonville and Caius College. After leaving the Institute of Astronomy in 1973 Stephen came to the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, and from 1979 to 2009 he held the post of Lucasian Professor of Mathematics for 30 years. The chair was founded in 1663 with money left in the will of the Honorable Henry Lucas, who had been the Member of Parliament for the University. It was first held by Isaac Barrow, and then in 1669 by Isaac Newton. Stephen Hawking has worked on the basic laws which govern the universe. He showed that Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity implied space and time would have a beginning in the Big Bang and an end in black holes. These results indicated it was necessary to unify General Relativity with Quantum Theory. One consequence of such a unification that he discovered was that black holes should not be completely black, but should emit radiation and eventually evaporate and disappear. Another conjecture is that the universe has no edge or boundary in imaginary time. This would imply that the way the universe began was completely determined by the laws of science. Stephen has many technical publications, such as The Large Scale Structure of Spacetime, 1973. This is a book written by Stephen Hawking and George Ellis. They attempt to describe the foundation of space itself and its nature of infinite expansion, mathematically as well as theoretically. The book is too hard to read, he derides it as â€Å"highly technical and quite unreadable† and advises readers to not seek it out. Information Loss in Black Holes is an article about the question of whether information is lost in black holes. He also has three popular books published. The first one is his best seller A Brief History of Time, which stayed on the British Sunday Times bestsellers list for a record-breaking 237 weeks. The book attempts to explain a range of subjects in cosmology, including the Big Bang, black holes and light cones, to the nonspecialist reader. Its main goal is to give an overview of the subject, but unusual for a popular science book, it also attempts to explain some complex mathematics. The second one is Black Holes and Baby Universes and Other Essays, It is a collection of both introductory and technical lectures on the thermodynamics of black holes, but it also includes descriptions on Special Relativity, General Relativity and Quantum Mechanics. This collection of lectures also includes essays on Hawking’s personal life when he was young and, most famously, his disease, motor neurone disease. The book also includes an interview of Stephen Hawking. The third one is The Universe in a Nutshell. The book explains to a general audience various matters relating to his work the part of superstring theory in quantum mechanics. It tells the history and principles of modern physics. It is generally considered to be a sequel to A Brief History of Time. Stephen has many interesting ideas. He is known for his three big ideas. Idea about Alien life, he suspect there could be life and intelligence out there in forms we can’t conceive. Just as a chimpanzee can’t understand quantum theory, it could be there are aspects of reality that are beyond the capacity of our brains. Idea about Time travel, he believes that we can start our time travel through wormholes. He thinks wormholes are all around us, only they’re too small to see. They occur in nooks and crannies in space and time, nothing is flat or solid. If you look closely enough at anything you’ll find holes and wrinkles in it. It’s a basic physical principle, and it even applies to time. Idea about Leaving earth, He said if humanity is to survive long-term, we must find a way to get off planet Earth. It will be difficult enough to avoid disaster in the next hundred years, let alone the next thousand or million; our only chance of long-term survival is not to remain inward-looking on planet Earth, but to spread out into space. Professor Hawking is the recipient of many awards, medals and prizes, Known for Wolf Prize, Prince of Asturias Award, Copley Medal, and Presidential Medal of Freedom. And he is also a Fellow of the Royal Society and a Member of the US National Academy of Sciences. This picture shows President Obama talks with Stephen Hawking before presenting him the Presidential Medal of Freedom on 12 August 2009. The Medal of Freedom is the nation’s highest civilian honour. Stephen Hawking continues to combine family life (he has three children and one grandchild), and his research into theoretical physics together with an extensive programme of travel and public lectures. How to cite A Brief History of Stephen Hawking, Papers