LAHORE: Despite suffering from a rare and life-threatening condition of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis or the Motor Neurone Disease, which causes the death of neurons controlling voluntary muscles, fantastic English physicist and mathematical genius, Dr. Stephen Hawking, is no more but his breakthrough discoveries in Cosmology will be remembered for a very long time to come.
Incidentally, Stephen Hawking died on the day (March 14) that marks the birthday of Albert Einstein (1879-1955), the German-born physicist who had developed the Theory of Relativity, one of the two pillars of modern Physics. Like Hawking, Einstein, also known as the "father of the Atomic Bomb," had also died at the age of 76!
The "Fox News" states: "In what may be regarded as an astounding coincidence, famed theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking died on Pi Day, March 14, the day each year when scientists and mathematicians celebrate the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter. March 14 also marks the birthday of Albert Einstein, who would have turned 139 this year."
It was Einstein, who had written a letter in 1939 to the-then US President Franklin Roosevelt, whereby apprising him of the potential development of "extremely powerful bombs of a new type" by Hitler's Nazi Germany and had recommended that the United States initiated similar research. This letter of his had eventually led to what would become the "Manhattan Project," which produced the first nuclear weapons on the planet.
Stephen Hawking, the director of research at the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology within Britain's prestigious University of Cambridge, had studied the nature of the Universe to make revolutionary and mind-boggling predictions on properties of Black Holes, besides exploring the myth and reality gravity.
Black Holes are regions of space having a gravitational field so intense that no matter or radiation can escape. Dr. Hawking had discovered that Black Holes were not really black at all. In fact, he found, they would eventually fizzle, leaking radiation and particles, and finally explode.
Black Holes, as research shows, were first studied in 1784 by famous British astronomer, John Michell, who had calculated that such a body might have the same density as the Sun. He had concluded 234 years ago that such a body would form when a star's diameter exceeds the Sun's by a factor of 500.
(References: The 2009 edition of the "Journal of Astronomical history and heritage and a research undertaken by the Dutch "Institute for Theoretical Physics" during the same year)
Stephen Hawking's life was nothing short of a miracle: Shortly after his 21st birthday, in 1963, doctors told him that he had amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. They gave him less than three years to live.
Hawking had been experiencing occasional weakness and falling spells for several years. This particular disease had reduced Dr. Stephen Hawking's bodily control to the flexing of a finger and voluntary eye movements, but miraculously left his mental faculties untouched.
Highlights from Stephen Hawking's illustrious life, career and achievements: He was born in Oxford, England, on January 8, 1942 to Isobel Walker and a prominent research biologist, Frank Hawking.
These were the days of World War II when London was being bombed at night time. The oldest of four children, which Isobel and Frank had, Stephen was a mediocre student at St. Albans School in London, though his innate brilliance was recognized by some classmates and teachers.
Later, while studying at University College, Oxford, he found his studies in mathematics and physics so easy that he rarely consulted a book or took notes. The only subject he found exciting was cosmology because, he said, it dealt with "the big question: Where did the universe come from?"
According to numerous esteemed American outlets like the "New York Times," over 10 million copies of his globally-acknowledged 1998 book " A brief history of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes" were sold.
His work had led to a turning point in the history of modern Physics. A 2014 film about his life, "The Theory of Everything," was nominated for several Academy Awards and Eddie Redmayne, who played Dr. Hawking, won the Oscar for best actor.
In 1990, Dr. Hawking and his wife Jane separated after 25 years of marriage. Jane Hawking had penned down two books, "Music to move the stars: A life with Stephen Hawking" and "Traveling to infinity: My life with Stephen" on her marital life.
In 1995, Stephen married Elaine Mason, a nurse who had cared for him since his bout of pneumonia. She had been married to David Mason, the engineer who had attached Dr. Hawking’s speech synthesizer to his wheelchair.
In 2004, British newspapers reported that the Cambridge police were investigating allegations that Elaine had abused Dr. Hawking, but no charges were filed, and Dr. Hawking denied the accusations. The couple divorced in 2006.
Stephen had three children: Robert, Lucy and Tim.
Among his many honors, Dr. Hawking was named a commander of the British Empire in 1982. In the summer of 2012, he had a star role in the opening of the Paralympics Games in London. The only thing lacking was the Nobel Prize, and his explanation for this was characteristically pithy: "The Nobel is given only for theoretical work that has been confirmed by observation. It is very, very difficult to observe the things I have worked on." In the late 1990s, he was reportedly offered a knighthood, but 10 years later revealed he had turned it down over issues with the government's funding for science.
In April 2007, a few months after his 65th birthday, he took part in a zero-gravity flight aboard a specially equipped Boeing 727, a padded aircraft that flies a roller-coaster trajectory to produce fleeting periods of weightlessness.
Tribute paid to Stephen Hawking by the "New York Times" and other renowned Western media houses like the BBC:
The "New York Times" states: "Until 1974, Dr. Hawking was still able to feed himself and to get in and out of bed. At Jane’s insistence, he would drag himself, hand over hand, up the stairs to the bedroom in his Cambridge home every night, in an effort to preserve his remaining muscle tone. After 1980, care was supplemented by nurses.
Dr. Hawking retained some control over his speech up to 1985. But on a trip to Switzerland, he came down with pneumonia. The doctors asked Jane if she wanted his life support turned off, but she said no. To save his life, doctors inserted a breathing tube. He survived, but his voice was permanently silenced."
The American media outlet adds; "It appeared for a time that he would be able to communicate only by pointing at individual letters on an alphabet board. But when a computer expert, Walter Woltosz, heard about Dr. Hawking’s condition, he offered him a program he had written called Equalizer. By clicking a switch with his still-functioning fingers, Dr. Hawking was able to browse through menus that contained all the letters and more than 2,500 words. Word by word — and when necessary, letter by letter — he could build up sentences on the computer screen and send them to a speech synthesizer that vocalized for him. The entire apparatus was fitted to his motorized wheelchair."
The "New York Times" has more to say: "Even when too weak to move a finger, he communicated through the computer by way of an infrared beam, which he activated by twitching his right cheek or blinking his eye. The system was expanded to allow him to open and close the doors in his office and to use the telephone and internet without aid. Although he averaged fewer than 15 words per minute, Dr. Hawking found he could speak through the computer better than he had before losing his voice. His only complaint, he confided, was that the speech synthesizer, manufactured in California, had given him an American accent."
The BBC chips in by saying: "Professor Hawking was the first to set out a theory of cosmology as a union of relativity and quantum mechanics. He also discovered that black holes leak energy and fade to nothing - a phenomenon that would later become known as the "Hawking Radiation." The Motor Neurone Disease Association, of which Prof Hawking had been a patron since 2008, reported that its website had crashed because of an influx of donations to the charity."
