[msb-alumni] Steven Hawking Dies at 76; Disabled People Protest the Way His Life was Portrayed; articles
- From: Steve <pipeguy920@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <msb-alumni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 28 Mar 2018 17:14:03 -0400
BlankHe saw a universe without limits . Joel Achenbach.
Stephen W. Hawking, the British theoretical physicist who overcame a
devastating
neurological disease to probe the greatest mysteries of the cosmos and become a
globally celebrated symbol of the power of the human mind, died March 14 at his
home
in Cambridge, England. He was 76. His family announced the death but did not
provide any further details.
Unable to move nearly any of his muscles, speechless but for a
computer-synthesized voice, Dr. Hawking had suffered since the age of 21 from a
degenerative motor neuron disease similar to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or
Lou Gehrig's disease.
Initially given two years to live, a diagnosis that threw him into a profound
depression, he found the strength to complete his doctorate and rise to the
position of Lucasian professor of mathematics at the University of Cambridge,
the same post held by Isaac Newton 300 years earlier. Dr. Hawking eventually
became one of the planet's most renowned science popularizers, and he embraced
the attention, traveling the world, meeting with presidents, visiting
Antarctica
and Easter Island, and flying on a special "zero gravity" jet whose parabolic
flight let Dr. Hawking float through the cabin as if he were in space.
"My goal is simple," he once said. "It is complete understanding of the
universe, why it is as it is and why it exists at all."
He spent much of his career searching for a way to reconcile Albert Einstein's
theory of relativity with quantum physics and produce a "theory of everything."
He wrote an international bestseller, "A Brief History of Time" (1988), that
delved into the origin and ultimate fate of the universe.
He deliberately set out to write a mass-market primer on an often
incomprehensible subject. Although the book was sometimes derided as being
dense
and had a reputation for being owned more than read, it sold millions of
copies,
was translated into more than 20 languages and inspired a mini-empire of
similar
books from Dr. Hawking, including "The Universe in a Nutshell" and "A Briefer
History of Time."
With his daughter, Lucy, he wrote a series of children's books about a young
intergalactic traveler named George.
His blunt 2013 memoir, "My Brief History," explored his development in science
as well as his turbulent marriages.
In addition, Dr. Hawking was the subject of a 1991 documentary, "A Brief
History
of Time," directed by Errol Morris, and countless newspaper and magazine
articles.
With the aid of a voice synthesizer, controlled by his fingers on a keyboard,
he
gave speeches around the world, from
Chile to China. He played himself on TV programs such as "Star Trek: The Next
Generation" and "The Simpsons," the latter featuring Dr. Hawking telling the
show's lazy animated patriarch: "Your theory of a doughnut-shaped universe is
interesting, Homer. I may have to steal it."
He insisted that his reputation as the second coming of Einstein had gotten out
of control through "media hype.
"I fit the part of a disabled genius," he told the Los Angeles Times in 1990.
"At least, I'm disabled - even though I'm not a genius like Einstein. . . . The
public wants heroes. They made Einstein a hero, and now they're making me a
hero, though with much less justification."
His scientific achievements included breakthroughs in understanding the extreme
conditions of black holes, objects so dense that not even light can escape
their gravity. His most famous theoretical breakthrough was to find an
exception
to this seemingly unforgiving law of physics: Black holes are not really black,
he realized, but rather can emanate thermal radiation from subatomic processes
at their boundary and can potentially evaporate. Scientists refer to such
theoretical emanations as "Hawking radiation."
This revelation impressed other scientists with the way it took Einstein's
general theory of relativity, which is essential for understanding the gravity
of black holes, and connected it to newer theories of quantum mechanics, which
cover subatomic processes. Plus, he threw in a dash of old-fashioned
thermodynamics - achieving a kind of physics trifecta. "Black holes ain't as
black as they are painted," Dr. Hawking once said in a lecture,
characteristically describing complicated physics in ordinary language. They
are
not the eternal prisons they were once thought. Things can get out of a black
hole, both to the outside and, possibly, to another universe. So, if you feel
you are in a black hole, don't give up. There's a way out."
He also hypothesized that miniature black holes, remnants of the big bang, may
be strewn through space, though he noted that they haven't been discovered.
"This is a pity, because if they had, I would have got a Nobel Prize," he joked.
Early life
Stephen William Hawking was born in Oxford, England, on Jan. 8, 1942 - the
300th
anniversary of Galileo's death, he liked to point out.
His father was a physician and specialist in tropical diseases; his mother was
active in the Liberal Party. Both parents were Oxford-educated, and Stephen --
the eldest of four siblings -- grew up surrounded by books. But he did not show
particular academic promise, despite an obvious streak of brilliance that
prompted his friends to nickname him "Einstein."
"I always wanted to know how everything worked," he told Omni magazine. "I
would
take things apart to see
how they worked, but they didn't often go back together."
He was a bit lazy and a bon vivant, as he later would acknowledge. After being
admitted to the
University of Oxford, he skimped on his studies and enjoyed carousing with
fellow members of the Oxford Boat Club, for which he was a tactically savvy
coxswain. He graduated in 1962 and did just well enough on his final exam to
earn admission to the University of Cambridge to pursue a doctorate.
"Physics was always the most boring subject at school because it was so easy
and
obvious. Chemistry was much more fun because unexpected things, such as
explosions, kept happening," Dr. Hawking wrote in his memoir. "But physics and
astronomy offered the hope of understanding where we came from and why we are
here. I wanted to fathom the depths of the Universe."
Then came what he later referred to as "that terrible thing."
He had noticed at Oxford that he'd become increasingly clumsy and would
sometimes stumble and fall for no obvious reason. Tests revealed motor neuron
disease; he could not expect to live more than a couple of years.
After a period of despondency in which he holed up in his room and listened to
Wagner, he attended a New Year's Eve party at which he met a young student
named
Jane Wilde. Their courtship spurred his will to live. They married in 1965.
"We had this very strong sense at the time that our generation lived anyway
under this most awful nuclear cloud - that with a four-minute warning the world
itself could likely end," Jane Hawking later told the British newspaper the
Observer. "That made us feel above all that we had to do our bit, that we had
to
follow an idealistic course in life. That may seem naive now, but that was
exactly the spirit in which Stephen and I set out in the Sixties - to make the
most of whatever gifts were given us."
They would have three children before his condition deteriorated to
near-complete paralysis.
He received a doctorate in 1966 and became a postgraduate research physicist at
Cambridge, where he hoped to study under the celebrated astrophysicist Fred
Hoyle.
Instead, he was assigned to Dennis Sciama -- a disappointment, at first. As he
later wrote: "This turned out to be a good thing. Hoyle was abroad a lot and I
wouldn't have seen much of him. Sciama on the other hand was there, and was
always stimulating."
A few years later, while on the staff of the Institute of Astronomy in
Cambridge, he formed a close collaboration with
Cambridge colleague Roger Penrose. They developed a theorem that the universe
has not always existed. The two showed that if the theory of relativity is
true,
the universe must have sprung into existence, out of what appeared to be
nothing, at a specific moment in the past and from a place where gravity became
so strong that space and time are curved beyond recognition -- what is known as
a "singularity."
At the remarkably young age of 32, Dr. Hawking was named a fellow of the Royal
Society. He received the Albert Einstein Award, the most prestigious award in
theoretical physics. He joined the Cambridge faculty in 1973 as a research
assistant in the department of applied mathematics and theoretical physics; he
was promoted to professor of gravitational physics in 1977.
Early fame
While at Cambridge, Dr. Hawking began to question the big-bang theory, which by
then most people had accepted. Perhaps, he
suggested, there was never a start and would be no end, but just change -- a
constant transition of one "universe" giving way to another through glitches in
space-time. All the while, Dr. Hawking was digging into exploding black holes,
string theory and the birth of black holes in our galaxy.
Dr. Hawking was known to weigh in rather playfully on grand cosmological
questions. He once suggested that if the universe stopped expanding and began
to
contract, time would run backward. He later said that he had changed his mind
on
that.
He gained headlines when he declared that humans should colonize other worlds
to
hedge their bets against the possible destruction of this one.
In an updated, illustrated (and easier-to-handle) version of "A Brief History
of
Time," he added a chapter on wormholes -- back-alley cosmic tunnels that might
conceivably let someone travel back in time.
Prancing on the edge of the plausible, he nonetheless stuck to what science can
tell us. "He thought about the deep and important questions in novel ways,"
said
David Spergel, Princeton University's chairman of astrophysics. "Hawking's
important contribution was identifying new ways to answer those questions and
formulating mathematically sophisticated ways of connecting general relativity
and quantum mechanics. Dr. Hawking had sought to come up with a "theory of
everything" that would essentially put an end to theoretical physics by
answering all the outstanding questions.
But whether such a theory can ever be substantiated is unclear."
Dr. Hawking said our universe might not be the only one there is - that many
more may be popping into existence all around us. He suggested that "cosmic
wormholes" briefly link those universes to ours and that subatomic particles
may
travel from one universe to another through them, accounting for some of the
strange behavior of particles that physicists observe.
The power of Dr. Hawking's celebrity was measured at times by the tabloid
coverage he drew for his complicated personal
life. His wife, Jane, spent hours every day bathing, washing and feeding Dr.
Hawking, who required constant nursing care. He developed pneumonia in 1985 on
a
trip to Geneva, and Jane battled doctors who wanted to turn off his life
support.
But the marriage grew strained, in part because of her Christian faith and his
adamant atheism, and in part because of what she called his remote and stoic
temperament. She described him as an "all-powerful emperor" who seemed blind to
how demanding his illness became for her as she also took care of their young
children. He refused measures that would have made life easier for her, she
said, and she felt it was "too cruel" to coerce him to see it her way. They
grew
apart and, in 1990, just shy of their 25th wedding anniversary, separated when
Dr. Hawking left Jane for his nurse, Elaine Mason. He married Mason five years
later after his divorce from Jane became final. Dr. Hawking called his second
marriage, which also ended in divorce, "passionate and tempestuous."
Survivors include his children, Lucy, Robert and Tim.
Dr. Hawking's offices were filled with photographs of him with admirers, from
popes (he was a member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences) to Soviet
physicist and human rights campaigner Andrei Sakharov.
He once described his heroes as "Galileo, Einstein, Darwin and Marilyn Monroe."
The last was of particular appeal to the scientist, who hung posters of her and
collected Monroe-related bric-a-brac. "My daughter and secretary gave me
posters
of her, my son gave me a Marilyn bag and my wife a Marilyn towel," he once
said.
"I suppose you could say she was a model of the universe."
*****
What Stephen Hawking taught us about the universe Kim Hjelmgaard , USA TODAY
Stephen Hawking, the British theoretical physicist who died Wednesday at 76,
was
one of the most famous scientists of the modern age. He showed resilience in
the
face of a type of motor neuron disease that left him almost completely
paralyzed.
For the non-specialist, Hawking's contributions to his subject'can be hard to
grasp. Here are some of his achievements, explained:
Hawking probed the origins of the universe by bringing together several
different fields of study including cosmology (evolution and structure of the
universe), gravity (the force that attracts separate objects), quantum theory
(matter and energy), thermodynamics (heat and energy) and information theory
(how data are stored and sequenced).
According to Albert Einstein's theory of relativity (a theory for space and
time), the Big Bang -- the idea that all matter in the universe began about 14
billion years ago with a massive explosion -- started with a "singularity" (a
tiny, single, concentrated point when all the laws of physics broke down).
Hawking's Ph.D. thesis at Cambridge University sought to prove that this tiny,
single point was physically possible. Up until this point, it was not clear if
a
"singularity" was something real.
Hawking advanced our understanding of black holes, those places in space where
gravity is so intense that no light can escape. His first big idea was that
black holes may not in fact really be black at all. He concluded that they emit
heat particles or radiation, a theory that many physicists disagreed with
because it contradicted some basic laws of quantum mechanics.
Today, this theory is known as "Hawking radiation."
However, Hawking struggled to fully explain how these particles could possibly
escape and later in his life he revised this theory. He came to believe that
any
information that a black hole emits may actually be stored at its "event
horizon" -- the theoretical boundary space around a black hole that can't be
observed from the outside.
*****
Remembering Stephen Hawking: 5 things to know about the legendary physicist
Brett Molina , USA TODAY
Hawking's work on theoretical physics earned him countless honors, and made him
a key voice in understanding our universe. Here are five things to know about
Hawking's life and career.
The disease forced Hawking to remain in a wheelchair and depend on a
computerized voice system to communicate. According to' Live Science , the
average life expectancy after an ALS diagnosis is three years, with only 5%
living 20 years or more.
Genetics could have played a key role in Hawking's survival, Live Science
reports. Studies suggest people diagnosed at a younger age tend to live much
longer.
Working with fellow scientist Roger Penrose, he showed Albert Einstein's theory
of relativity suggested space and time had a definitive beginning and end. This
led to the theory that black holes aren't completely black, but emit radiation
and eventually disappear.
In 1988, Hawking published a book targeting non-scientists to help explain
fundamental questions such as how the universe started and whether it will end.
It set a record by spending more than five years on The Sunday Times
"bestseller list," and was the No. 1 all-time book on their list as of 2014.
Among Hawking's other accolades: In 1982, he received the Commander of the
Order
of the British Empire honor and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom
in
2009. He was also named a Fellow of The Royal Society, comprised of "the most
eminent scientists, engineers and technologists from the UK and the
Commonwealth," according to the society.
*****
Memorable Musings from Steven Hawking
As well as being a world-renowned scientist, Hawking was known for his
memorable
and inspirational musings. Here are some of them:
On humans and our place in the world
"We are just an advanced breed of monkeys on a minor planet of a very average
star. But we can understand the universe. That makes us something very special."
"I believe the simplest explanation is, there is no God. No one created the
universe and no one directs our fate."
"We are in danger of destroying ourselves by our greed and stupidity. We cannot
remain looking inwards at ourselves on a small and increasingly polluted and
overcrowded planet."
On knowledge:
"The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of
knowledge."
"My goal is simple. It is a complete understanding of the universe, why it is
as
it is and why it exists at all."
"Mankind's greatest achievements have come about by talking, and its greatest
failures by not talking."
On his disability"
"My disabilities have not been a significant handicap in my field, which is
theoretical physics. Indeed, they have helped me in a way by shielding me from
lecturing and administrative work that I would otherwise have been involved in."
"Although I cannot move and I have to speak through a computer, in my mind I am
free."
On his philosophy
"Life would be tragic if it weren't funny."
"Remember to look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Try to make sense
of what you see and wonder about what makes the universe exist. Be curious.
And
however difficult life may seem, there is always something you can do and
succeed at. It matters that you don't just give up."
Contributing: The Associated Press
******
Hawking's death, Einstein's birth, and Pi Day: what does it all mean? Brett
Molina , USA TODAY
He will go down in history as the man who changed the way we view the universe
and as a fighter who was never supposed to live past the age of 21. USA TODAY
So, is there some mystical theory explaining how noted astrophysicist Stephen
Hawking died on the same day Albert Einstein was born, which also happens to be
the day we honor the mathematical constant Pi?
Nope. It's just all one giant coincidence.
Hawking died at 76, his family confirmed early Wednesday. He was considered one
of the world's foremost theoretical
physicists, developing critical theories on black holes and writing A Brief
History of Time to explain complex scientific concepts to the masses.
Hawking's birth and passing align with the most important names in science.
He was born on January 8, 1942, the 300th anniversary of the death of famed
astronomer Galileo.
Hawking passed on March 14, the same day fellow theoretical physicist Albert
Einstein was born.
Of course, this caught the attention of'social media:
"Stephen Hawking was born January 8, 1942, on the 300th anniversary of
Galileo's
death. He died today, March 14th, on the anniversary of Einstein's birth. Time
is circular -- no beginning, no end."
"Stephen Hawking died on Einstein's birthday, and was born on the 300th
anniversary of the death of Galileo. 3 giants of modern cosmology. How
symbolic."
"Stephen Hawking was born on the 300th death anniversary of Galileo Galilei,
and
died on the 139th birth anniversary of Albert Einstein. Gravity is indeed
deterministic."
*****
Some people are angry about how the media is covering Stephen Hawking Alia E.
Dastagir , USA TODAY
Stephen Hawking, one of the greatest scientists of the modern age, died this
week at 76. The pioneering astrophysicist spent his life changing the way we
think about the universe, but some people say his obituaries show how much work
remains in changing how we think about people with disabilities.
Social media users decried some coverage of Hawking's death as "ableist," a
term
to describe discrimination or prejudice against people who are disabled.
Hawking, who was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) when he was
21, used a wheelchair and communicated through a computerized voice system.
While the media described his remarkable scientific achievements, many also
fixated on his ALS, something advocates say perpetuates stereotypes about
people
living with disabilities. "for the love of dog and all things holy, please
don't
describe stephen hawking as having overcome his disability, or his disability
as
inability, or any number of boring, ableist tropes that take away from what an
utter badass he was and how the world was better for him in it."
"There are people who think he's a hero because he lived with this degenerative
motor neuron disability. Well, no. The alternative to that was dying," said
Colleen Kelly Starkloff, co-founder of the Starkloff Disability Institute,
which
works to change attitudes about people with disabilities.
Starkloff'and her late husband Max Starkloff, who was disabled, met Hawking at
a
White House reception in 1998.
"He wanted to live. He wanted to make a contribution. He was a curious man, and
he did a great deal to help us think differently about the universe. ... His
pictures will draw attention to his disability. What should be focused on
primarily was that this man was a genius and that he advanced physics in a way
that most people have not."
Many stories about Hawking's death used phrases such as "overcame his
disability," or "in spite of his disability," which Starkloff said have
negative
connotations.
As one Twitter user wrote, "We really need to stop referring to disability and
success/achievement as if they're somehow diametrically opposed."
People also took issue with cartoons depicting Hawking standing in heaven -- a
place he did not believe in -- for implying he was now finally "free."
"This is such a problematic image! It is an ableist fantasy that every person
with a disability dreams of being made "Typically-abled" in the after-life. Not
to mention that Stephen Hawking did not believe in an after-life!"
https://t.co/GZJXA1SRqE
Hawking's accomplishments were extraordinary for anyone, able-bodied or not,
and
yet in a headline recapping his life Buzzfeed wrote:
"Stephen Hawking, Astrophysicist With A Paralyzing Disease, Dies At 76."
From the Washington Post's obit:
"Stephen W. Hawking, the British theoretical physicist who overcame a
devastating neurological disease to probe the greatest mysteries of the cosmos
and become a globally celebrated symbol of the power of the human mind, died
March 14 at his home in Cambridge, England."
From CNN's obit:
"Stephen Hawking, the brilliant British theoretical physicist who overcame a
debilitating disease to publish wildly popular books probing the mysteries of
the universe, has died, according to a family spokesman."
From USA TODAY's obit, which has since been corrected:
"Despite his physical ailments, he was known for a direct and dry wit, often
combining the marvelous and mundane in his observations."
"Can people, like, not refer to Stephen Hawking's "limitations", "overcoming
disability", "reasons to give up", and it being a "testament" when honouring
his
legacy?! He was the incredibly achieving man he was WITH disability, not
despite
it. Pls stop with the inspiration porn!"
"What did he overcome? His disability didn't go away," Starkloff said. "I think
the writers are trying to say that this man was a very accomplished man, but
they don't have to put it in the sense that he overcame this devastating
neurological disease. He dealt with his disability -- that's what we say. You
deal with it. You manage your disability. You accept it for part of who you
are.
And you live your life as fully and productively as you want to."
Hawking said his disability may have even aided him in his work.
"My disabilities have not been a significant handicap in my field, which is
theoretical physics," Hawking wrote in a 1984 article for Science Digest.
"Indeed, they have helped me in a way by shielding me from lecturing and
administrative work that I would otherwise have been involved in."
In the United States, one out of every five adults has a disability, according
to a 2015 study published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
While policy changes have helped people with disabilities participate more
fully
in society, Starkloff said they are still actively fighting bias.
She suggests journalists use "simple language" when writing about people with
disabilities and pay attention to subtleties. There's a big difference between
saying "Hawking became disabled at the age of 21" and saying "Hawking suffered
from a degenerative disease since he was 21."
Other tips:
Hawking said multiple times that his life was "full." He fell in love, had
three
children and spent his career looking for answers to some of the universe's
most
fundamental questions.
"I accept that there are some things I can't do," he told the Associated Press
in 1997. "But they are mostly things I don't particularly want to do anyway. I
seem to manage to do anything that I really want."
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