Stephen Hawking - biography, personal life: Superbrain. Fiction Archive Stephen Hawking - personal life

Professor Stephen Hawking, considered one of the most intelligent men the world has ever known, died at his home in Cambridge early this morning.

The family confirmed his death.
His children, Lucy, Robert and Tim, said in a statement: “We are deeply saddened that our beloved father passed away today.
“He was a great scientist and an extraordinary man whose work and legacy will live on for many years to come.
“His courage and perseverance, with his brilliance and humor, inspired people around the world.
"He once said, 'It wouldn't be much of a part of the universe if it weren't home to the people you love.' We will miss him forever."

Mr. Hawking in Princeton, New Jersey, October 10, 1979

Mr Hawking with his daughter Lucy, son Robert and first wife Jane

Professor Hawking often said that he was born on the 300th anniversary of the death of Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei. He died on the 139th anniversary of the birth of theoretical physicist Albert Einstein and on Pi Day, which celebrates the mathematical constant pi.

Mr Hawking, nicknamed "Einstein" as a student, spent much of his life in a wheelchair, unable to speak or move, after being struck down by illness at the age of 21.

His sharp mind changed the way people understand the universe with his breakthrough theory that radiation comes from black holes, and he served as an inspiration to millions.

His rise to fame and his troubled life have been well documented in recent years with the Hollywood film The Theory of Everything depicting his early years.

Dr Frank Hawking holding his infant son Stephen in 1942

Stephen as a child with his sister Mary

Stephen Hawking with his sisters Mary and Phillipa

Little Stephen Hawking with his Aunt Muriel

Millions of people from all over the world express their condolences over the death of Stephen Hawking.

American astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, who won the last Stephen Hawking Medal for Science and Communication, tweeted: “His passing leaves behind an intellectual vacuum, but it is not empty. Think of it as some kind of vacuum energy. Stephen Hawking, RIP 1942-2018. "

Born in London, Mr Hawking grew up in Oxford and St Albans

Mr Hawking Schoolboy

Mr Hawking at his Oxford graduation

Sir Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, tweeted: “We have lost a colossal mind and a beautiful spirit. Rest in peace, Stephen Hawking."

Professor Stephen Toope, vice-chancellor at Cambridge, where Mr Hawking was a colleague at Gonville and Caius College, said: "Professor Hawking was a unique person, who will be remembered with warmth and affection not only in Cambridge, but throughout the world.

"His exceptional contribution to scientific knowledge and the popularization of science and mathematics have left a lasting legacy.

“His character was an inspiration to millions of people and he will be greatly missed.”

The Queen meets Mr Hawking at the Leonard Cheshire Disability charity event in May 2014

Mr Hawking s former president South Africa Nelson Mandela in May 2008

Mr Hawking with Challenge University head Jeremy Paxman and the winning team in 2016

Professor Hawking will go down in history as one of the greatest thinkers of all time.

Official page of the scientist

• Isabel Hawking - mother
• Mary Hawking – sister
• Jane Wilde - first wife (1965 - 1991)
• Elaine Mason - second wife (1995)
• Robert Hawking – eldest son
• Lucy Hawking – middle daughter
• George Edward Hawking – youngest son

“My expectations for life were reduced to zero when I turned 21.
Since then, I perceive everything that happened to me as a bonus.”

Famous British astrophysicist and writer, professor, author of about two hundred scientific books and publications. The main object of his research is black holes, describing which he made major discoveries in the field of cosmology and quantum gravity. He is also the author of many scientific works.

Born in Oxford (UK). After graduating from St. Albans School, near London, the young man entered Oxford University. Three years later, he was the first in his group to defend his degree in physics. Stephen's further passion turned out to be cosmology, which he took up at Cambridge. Under the arches of this university, the devotee of science became a doctor of cosmology with the degree of professor of mathematics. At the age of 21, Stephen began to stumble when walking, and by the age of 30, the young professor at Cambridge University and one of the leading cosmological theorists found himself confined to a wheelchair. Doctors honestly warned the young Cambridge University student that he had two to three years to live, but this time the doctors were wrong, and his disease turned out to be a rare form of motor neurone disease. Because of this, the decline of muscle activity lasted for more than forty years.

After a tracheotomy in 1985, his only way to communicate with the outside world was through a special device that recorded finger pressure and transmitted signals to a computer built into his wheelchair. A special program displays a list of words on the screen in front of him, from which he constructs phrases. These phrases are then fed into a voice synthesizer that speaks them with a distinct American accent. In the same way, Hawking can control his chair, as well as manipulate doors and some appliances in his home. He can read and type e-mail messages, browse websites and write articles. With the deterioration of the hand's condition, the professor had to switch to using another device - it records the movements of the eyelids and cheeks and transmits the sequence of these movements to the computer, where they are recognized as control commands.

Stephen Hawking is an outstanding scientist, theoretical physicist, who worked in the department of physics at Trinity College, the department in Cambridge that Newton once occupied, the scientist lectured and wrote most interesting books. And I helped him with this modern technology. An electric wheelchair allowed him to move, and a computer located under the chair allowed him to speak. Words and the most common phrases quickly appear on the display screen. By pressing a button (the fingers of one hand still work), Hawking formed a sentence, and the electronic synthesizer spoke it out loud.

Professor Hawking is the recipient of 12 honorary degrees and the title of Commander of the Order of Knights of Honor. He received many awards and was a member of the Royal scientific society Great Britain, as well as the National Academy of Sciences of the USA. In addition, Stephen Hawking was married twice and had three children from his first wife. In 1993, he starred in an episode of the popular TV series Star Trek, while being an ardent fan of the oldest British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which has been running since 1963, and the American science fiction television series Red Dwarf" (Red Dwarf, 1988-1999). He also participated in several other science fiction films.

But Hawking is known not only for his severe illness and brilliant mind. He often gave lectures in which he made fantastic predictions regarding the development of science and the future of humanity. In the 2000s, a unique intellectual amazed the world with a new achievement. His cybernetic “exoskeleton” to compensate for the weakness of the body cost $55 million. Stephen's suit allowed the owner to: manipulate radioisotopes; have the strength of a jack in your hands; observe subatomic phenomena through glasses; be underwater or in space; move around on rocket boots; have access to the Internet. This invention was awarded a prize by the International Scientific Union, and the inventor himself was elected head of the Helsinki Institute of Cybernetics.

Stephen Hawking is the author of the encyclopedic book " Brief history time" (A Brief History of Time), published in the USA in 1988. This work was nominated for a Hugo Award, but did not win, which, however, caused some criticism of the committee’s decision.

And in 2007, he announced his intention to write, together with his daughter Lucy, a children's science fiction book called George's Secret Key To The Universe. Main character, George, along with the neighbor girl Annie and her dad, cosmologist Eric, travels through the universe with the help of an amazing computer that can instantly take George and his friends to any point in the universe. Naturally, the heroes of the book, having gone on a space journey, end up on other planets and even on the very edge solar system, undergo various adventures and almost die in the Black Hole. Stephen Hawking and his daughter, after the publication of the first story, published several more books about the adventures of George, where, in addition to a purely science-fiction plot, readers are offered scientific facts about our Universe, about black holes and so on.

Chained to his miracle chair, the restless British astrophysicist made his first flight in zero gravity on April 26, 2007. The American company Zero Gravity provided the professor with a free opportunity to experience weightlessness. A Boeing 727 specially converted for these purposes with the necessary medical equipment and personnel, rising to a ten-kilometer altitude, made a series of dives along a parabolic trajectory. For 25 seconds, while the plane slid down, everyone on board experienced a state of weightlessness. " It was wonderful, I could repeat this experience over and over again“Hawking admitted after the flight. He became the first disabled person to experience weightlessness.

In 2013, Stephen Hawking’s autobiographical book “My Brief History” was published, in which he describes his unusual and extraordinary life, piercing in its sincerity and frankness. A year later, a biographical film was filmed feature film“The Theory of Everything,” in which viewers are presented amazing life amazing person, who managed to prove the famous expression: “Knowledge is power.”

Stephen Hawking died at the age of 76 at home in Cambridge, England.

Author's works

Stories
• Cycle about George / In co-authors. with Lucy Hawking
  • 2007 – George’s Secret Key to the Universe / In Russian translation “George and the Secrets of the Universe”
  • 2009 – George’s Cosmic Treasure Hunt / In Russian translation “George and the Treasures of the Universe”
  • 2012 – George and the Big Bang (George and the Big Bang)
  • 2014 – George and the Unbreakable Code
  • 2016 – George and the Blue Moon / In Russian translation “George and the Ice Satellite”

  Scientific, popular science and non-fiction books

• 1969 – Features of exploding stars and expanding universes (Singularities in Collapsing Stars and Expanding Universes) / Co-author. with D. W. Sciama
• 1973 – The Large Scale Structure of Spacetime / Co-author. with George Ellis
• 1988 – A Brief History of Time: From big bang to black holes (A Brief History of Time from the Big Bang to Black Holes)
• 1993 – Black Holes and Baby Universes and Other Essays
• 1996 – The Theory of Everything: The Origin and Fate of the Universe
• 1996 – The Nature of Space and Time) / Co-author. with Roger Penrose
• 1997 – The Large, the Small, and the Human Mind / Co-author. with Abner Shimony, Nancy Cartwright, Roger Penrose
• 2001 – The Universe in a Nutshell
• 2002 – On The Shoulders of Giants. The Great Works of Physics and Astronomy
• 2005 – Information Loss in Black Holes
• 2005 - God Created the Integers: The Mathematical Breakthroughs That Changed History
• 2005 – Brief history time (A Briefer History of Time) / Co-author. with Leonard Mlodinow
• 2010 – The Grand Design / Co-author. with Leonard Mlodinow
• 2013 – My Brief History

  Filmography and film adaptations (fiction)

• 1993 – Descent (episode from the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation)
• 1998 – Bioperfection: Building a New human race(Bioperfection: Building a New Human Race) – TV movie
• 2000 – Anthology of Interest I – episode from the animated series “Futurama”
• 2005 – Alien Planet – cartoon
• 2007 – The Discarded – episode of the television series “Masters of Science Fiction”
• 2007 – Jerry Was a Man – episode of the television series “Masters of Science Fiction”
• 2007 – Awakening ( The Awakening) - episode of the television series "Masters of Science Fiction"
• 2007 – A Clean Escape – episode of the television series “Masters of Science Fiction”

Awards and titles

• 1975 – Eddington Medal
• 1976 – Hughes Medal from the Royal Society (Hughes Medal of the Royal Society)
• 1979 – Albert Einstein Medal
• 1982 – Order of the British Empire
• 1985 – Gold medal Royal Astronomical Society (Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society)
• 1986 – Member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences
• 1988 – Wolf Prize in Physics – Israel
• 1989 – Prince of Asturias Awards – Spain
• 1989 – Companion of Honor
• 1999 – Julius Edgar Lilienfeld Prize
• 2003 – Michelson Morley Award
• 2006 – Copley Medal from the Royal Society (Copley Medal of the Royal Society)
• 2017 – Arthur C. Clarke Awards – USA, “for overall contribution”

Fantastic works

Selected editions

• George and the Secrets of the Universe: A Tale / Co-author. with Lucy Hawking featuring Christophe Galfar; Per. E. D. Kanishcheva; Rice. Harry Parsons. – M.: Pink Giraffe, 2008. – 360 p. 7,000 copies (p) ISBN 978-5-903497-13-3
  • The same: Tale / In co-author. with Lucy Hawking; Per. E. D. Kanishcheva; Rice. Harry Parsons. – M.: Pink Giraffe, 2012. – 336 p. – (New in black holes!). 7,000 copies (n) ISBN 978-5-4370-0004-5
  • The same: Tale / In co-author. with Lucy Hawking; Per. E. D. Kanishcheva; Rice. G. Parsons. – M.: Pink Giraffe, 2012. – 336 p. – (New in black holes!). 10,000 (additional circulation) copies. (n) ISBN 978-5-4370-0052-6
• George and the Treasures of the Universe: A Tale / Co-author. with Lucy Hawking; Per. E. D. Kanishcheva, edited by Ph.D. Sciences V. G. Surdina; Rice. Harry Parsons. – M.: Pink Giraffe, 2010. – 352 p. 10,000 copies (n) ISBN 978-5-903497-22-5
• George and the Big Bang: A Tale / Co-author. with Lucy Hawking; Per. E. D. Kanishcheva; Rice. Harry Parsons. – M.: Pink Giraffe, 2012. – 328 p. 7,000 copies (n) ISBN 978-5-4370-0021-2
• George and the Code That Can't Be Cracked: A Tale / In co-author. with Lucy Hawking; Per. E. D. Kanishcheva; Rice. Harry Parsons. – M.: Pink Giraffe, 2015. – 352 p. 3,000 copies (n) ISBN 978-5-4370-0107-3
• George and the Ice Companion: A Tale / Co-author. with Lucy Hawking; Per. E. D. Kanishcheva; Rice. Harry Parsons. – M.: Pink Giraffe, 2018. – 376 p. 7,000 copies (n) ISBN 978-5-4370-0198-1

Popular science works

Selected editions

• The nature of space and time / In co-author. with Roger Penrose / Trans. A. V. Berkova, V. G. Lebedeva; Designer M. V. Botya. – Izhevsk: Research Center “Regular and Chaotic Dynamics”, 2000. – 160 p. Circulation not specified (o) ISBN 5-93972-003-X – signed for publication on May 11, 2000.
• A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes / Transl. N. Ya. Smorodinskaya. – St. Petersburg: Amphora, 2000. – 272 p. – (Eureka). 7,000 copies (n) ISBN 5-8301-0182-3
• A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes / Transl. N. Ya. Smorodinskaya. – St. Petersburg: Amphora, 2001. – 272 p. – (Eureka). (n) ISBN 5-94278-564-3
• A Brief History of Time / Transl. N. Ya. Smorodinskaya. – St. Petersburg: Amphora, 2003. – 268 p. – (Eureka). 7,000 copies (n) ISBN 5-94278-426-4
• A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes / Transl. N. Ya. Smorodinskaya. – St. Petersburg: Amphora, 2004. – 272 p. – (New Eureka). 4,000 copies (n) ISBN 5-94278-564-3
• A Brief History of Time / Transl. N. Ya. Smorodinskaya. – St. Petersburg: Amphora, 2007. – 232 p. 5,000 copies (n) ISBN 5-367-00490-8
• The highest plan / In co-authors. with Leonard Mlodinow; Per. M. Kononova. – St. Petersburg: Amphora, 2012. – 208 p. – (Dynasty). 15,000 copies (n) ISBN 978-5-367-02218-6

Publications in periodicals and collections

• Will there be a need for the idea of ​​the Creator when God’s plan becomes clear to us?: [Fragment of the book “A Brief History of Time”] // Science and Religion, 1991, No. 8 – pp. 11-13

About life and creativity

• Lucy Green. Grandfather Hawking, or That's what I call action: [About the forecasts of Stephen Hawking, a brilliant theoretical physicist] //

The world's most famous theoretical physicist, Stephen Hawking, who was planning to fly into space from a wheelchair, studied the nature of the Universe, and became a symbol of human determination and curiosity, died in Cambridge at the age of 76.

“The Table” recalls how Stephen Hawking surprised this world.

1. Life in spite of the diagnosis

English theoretical physicist Stephen William Hawking was born on January 8, 1942 in Oxford into a poor family of medical workers. At school, he was not particularly keen on studying, but then he came to his senses and slightly increased his average score. He was best at physics. By the end of school, he had gone from being an average student to being simply brilliant. Hawking wanted to go to Oxford and for this he definitely needed to get a scholarship, since his parents were not able to pay for his education at the university. And he passed entrance examination with amazingly high scores.

And Hawking became one of Oxford's brilliant students. He was even a member of the university rowing team - although not very muscular, Stephen was the coxswain. He sat at the stern and gave orders to the rowers, setting the pace of the rowing.

He graduated from Oxford University in 1962 with a BA in mathematics and physics, then received a PhD from Trinity Hall College, Cambridge University.

Stephen Hawking, 1992

But a year later, Hawking's life went downhill - he was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). It is an incurable degenerative neuromuscular disease. According to doctors, he had about two years to live. However, he continued to work despite his progressive illness.

And he lived with ALS for almost 55 years.

In 1965, Stephen Hawking began studying scientific research at the University of Cambridge at Gonville and Keyes College. He worked at the Institute of Theoretical Astronomy, then at the Institute of Astronomy at the department applied mathematics and theoretical physics, taught the theory of gravity, became a professor of gravitational physics.

In 1979, Stephen Hawking became Professor of Mathematics and Lucasian Professor at the University of Cambridge, a named professorship at the University of Cambridge, one of the most prestigious academic positions in the world, a position he held until 2009.

At the same time, the disease rapidly progressed, depriving Stephen of the ability to walk and move his muscles. For the last three decades, Stephen has been moving around in a special wheelchair, and speaks with the help of an artificial voice synthesizer - he lost his voice forever after pneumonia in 1985.

However, despite his severe disability, Hawking was married. And twice. From his first wife, Jane Wilde, three children were born: son Robert, daughter Lucy and son Timothy. When the physicist needed a permanent caregiver, he met Elaine Mason. Constantly living together brought Elaine and Stephen very close. The scientist divorced his first wife and married his nurse. After 11 years, Hawking will divorce Elaine. Hawking had no children from his second marriage.

Hawking with his first wife

Moreover, Hawking was able to do many things in his wheelchair that were inaccessible to ordinary people - for example, he experienced zero gravity. In 2007, Zero Gravity introduced the ability to soar using a plane that takes off sharply and dives. People inside can experience a state of weightlessness for about 25 seconds. Hawking was even able to do a somersault while freed from his wheelchair.

Hawking with his wife and children

2. Great “self-promoter”

Today, Stephen Hawking's net worth is about $20 million. However, when Hawking had to permanently sit in a wheelchair, he was content only with a modest salary as a teacher. And then he decided to earn money for nurses and medicine with the help of science - he decided to write books about the structure of the Universe.

In April 1988, Hawking published the best-selling book “A Brief History of Time (From the Big Bang to Black Holes)” - a kind of textbook on the structure of the Universe, space and time “for dummies.”

“My goal is very simple,” Hawking himself wrote in the preface. - I want to understand the Universe, why it is structured the way it is, and why we are here... If you think that the task of comprehending the laws of the universe is the lot of people with high IQ, then I will tell you that I have no idea what me IQ. Those who are interested in this are just losers..."

Since then, Hawking has written 17 books on cosmology, including such bestsellers as Black Holes and Young Universes and Other Essays (1993), The World in a Nutshell (2001), and The Grand Design and My Brief History. (2010). He also co-authored several books for children with his daughter Lucy Hawking. The most famous is the bestseller A Brief History of Time (1988). There are also lesser known ones: “George and the Secrets of the Universe” (2006) and “George’s Cosmic Treasure Hunt” (2009).

Stephen William Hawking

Hawking writes in a very unique way: his glasses are equipped with an infrared motion sensor that monitors the movement of the scientist’s facial muscles - the only ones that were not destroyed by the disease. With their help, Stephen can select a specific area on the monitor and “click” on it. This is how Hawking types texts and speaks through a speech synthesizer, spelling words.

At the same time, as experts note, Hawking’s books are characterized by emotionality and immature judgments; many of his conclusions have been refuted by science. For example, last year the University of Cambridge posted on its website a dissertation on astrophysics written by Hawking 51 years ago. It turned out that the hypothesis that Hawking successfully defended has long been recognized as erroneous.

But Stephen had another gift: he was the best popularizer of science and a brilliant self-promoter: he last day He did not let humanity forget about himself - he regularly gave forecasts about the future, each one sadder than the other. For example, he recently predicted that global warming will make the climate on Earth as deadly as on Venus.

3. Hawking radiation

Hawking radiation is a hypothetical process of “evaporation” of black holes, that is, the emission of various elementary particles(mainly photons), which Hawking predicted. His work, by the way, was preceded by a visit to Moscow in 1973 and meetings with Soviet scientists Yakov Zeldovich and Alexei Starobinsky.

After this, Hawking wrote a fundamental paper entitled “Black Hole Explosions?”, published in the journal Nature in 1974.

“When a huge star contracts, its gravity becomes so strong that even light can no longer escape its confines,” Hawking wrote. — An area from which nothing can escape is called a “black hole.” And its boundaries are called the “event horizon.”

Stephen William Hawking speaking on Black Holes

This work was a turning point in the history of modern physics, which came due to the fact that Dr. Hawking decided to apply quantum theory to black holes. After lengthy and complex calculations, Hawking discovered to his amazement that black holes are like stars—they gradually fade over time, releasing radiation and particles, and finally explode and disappear. This stream of particles is called “Hawking radiation”.

Scientists today call his discovery the first important milestone in attempts to find a unified theory of nature and connect gravity with quantum mechanics, which explain the small and large in different ways, and also give an explanation of the Universe.

“You might ask, what would happen if someone jumped into a black hole? - wrote Hawking. “I don’t think he will survive such a jump.” If we send someone to jump into a black hole, neither they nor their constituent atoms will come back, but their mass energy will. Maybe this applies to the entire universe."

On the other hand, it was because of “black holes” that Hawking lost the “bet of the century” he made with the American theoretical physicist John Preskill. Hawking stated that gravity " black hole"so powerful that all data about the original structure of matter disappears inside. Preskill did not agree with this conclusion, and only 30 years later Hawking admitted that his opponent was right.

4. The theory of the “Big Flattening”

Until the 20th century, it was believed that the Universe was eternal and unchanging. Hawking is very accessible language proved that this is not so. “Light from distant galaxies is shifted towards the red part of the spectrum,” he wrote. “This means that they are moving away from us, that the Universe is expanding.”

However, the expansion of the Universe suggests that it, at some point in the past, had a beginning. This moment when the Universe began to exist is called the Big Bang.

Stephen William Hawking

“It seemed to me that when the contraction began, the Universe would return to an ordered state,” Hawking wrote. - In this case, with the beginning of compression, time should have turned back. People in this stage would live their lives backwards and get younger as the Universe contracts - until the Universe ceases to exist at the moment of the “Big Flattening”. It will be like a big explosion, only on the contrary..."

However, all attempts to create mathematical model theories were not successful. Hawking later admitted his mistake: time will not turn back when the Universe begins to contract, and the model of the Universe is not as simple as it seems to theoretical physicists. According to the scientist, all theories do not apply at the moment of the beginning and end of the Universe.

5. An atheist who understands the language of God

Everyone knows that Hawking is a convinced atheist - at least that’s what he called himself. However, when thinking about the nature of the Universe, he often admitted mutually exclusive theories.

Stephen Hawking Award in Italy

So, in one place, discussing the process of eternal entropy - expansion - of the Universe, he wrote: “You can see how a cup falls from the table and breaks. But you can’t see how it comes back together from the fragments. The increase in disorder - entropy - is precisely what distinguishes the past from the future and gives direction to time ... "

Elsewhere, he is confident that the cup may well assemble itself from the surrounding atoms: “Since there is such a force as gravity, the Universe could and did create itself out of nothing. Spontaneous creation is the reason why the Universe exists, why we exist. There is no need for God to “light” the fire and make the Universe work..."

So will the cup itself be able to assemble itself from the fragments or not?

Hawking never found an answer to this question.

Only once did he notice that one of the consequences of the theory of quantum mechanics is that for certain physical processes some reasonable beginning is necessary. The hypothesis about the probabilistic nature of matter and energy says that events that happened in the past did not happen in any particular way. Instead, they happened in every possible way, but until there is an intelligent observer, everything will be "in a state of uncertainty as a spectrum of possibilities."

But who is this outside observer - man or God?

“The answer to this question will be the greatest triumph of the human mind, for then we will know the mind of God,” Hawking himself once remarked.

Name: Stephen Hawking (Stephen William Hawking)

Age: 76 years old

Place of birth: Oxford, UK

Place of death:: Cambridge

Activity: Scientist, theoretical physicist, mathematician

Marital status: was divorced

Stephen Hawking - biography

During the Second World War, Oxford and Cambridge were the only places in Great Britain that were not reached by German bombers. Frank Hawking chose Oxford and moved there from London with his wife. Soon, on January 8, 1942, Isabel gave birth to her first child, a son, Stephen.

The boy grew up strong and healthy. Two daughters followed, so Stephen was left to his own devices. He sat for a long time, dismantling old watches and other mechanisms, he wanted to see how everything worked. School turned out to be much less interesting: the teachers were boring, the subjects were boring. Unless mathematics is the only worthwhile science...

Stephen's parents worked in the medical field and were confident that their son would follow in their footsteps. But he refused - mathematics or physics! I had to work hard to get into the university, because at school Stephen was almost the worst student in the class. Although I couldn’t dare call the boy stupid. On the contrary, his classmates gave him the nickname Einstein - apparently in advance.

Stephen's admission to Oxford was celebrated on a grand scale. Only the young man himself did not really appreciate what he had. As before, he was only interested in exact sciences. In addition, it turned out that Hawking did not have many friends, and this upset him. True, there was a way out. Rowers were considered the most popular in Oxford, and Stephen became one of them - he took the position of helmsman. It turned out badly, the team lost at the competition, but now everyone knew him by sight, and there was no end to new acquaintances.

At one of the student parties, Stephen met her - the one who could make him forget about both his friends and rowing. Jane Wilde was not only pretty, but she also turned out to be interesting conversationalist. Well, who else would listen to stories about physical phenomena and the latest discoveries? And she listened...

Young Hawking spent one frosty Christmas day in 1962 at the skating rink. I was in a great mood, the ice was slipping under my feet, and suddenly... Everything started spinning, my legs tangled, and Stephen fell backwards. This was not the first fall. Before him, the young man had already happened to fly from the stairs, porch, and slip out of the blue. The parents insisted on an examination, and the doctors issued a disappointing verdict - amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. This meant that over time the muscles would completely atrophy, and Stephen himself, at best, would remain a “vegetable.”

The doctor took the patient’s inconsolable mother aside.

I give him two and a half years, no more.

The main question Stephen asked himself after hearing the verdict was: “Why me?” And then he suddenly realized how many plans he had. In addition, Jane was nearby, who, having learned about the diagnosis, was not afraid. This means we can move on with our lives.

Stephen Hawking - personal life

The disease progressed. If Stephen came to his own wedding with a cane, then he met his first-born on crutches.

Speech also failed - it became inarticulate.

Meanwhile, a daughter and another son were born. Robert, Lucy and Timothy became the meaning of Hawking's life, his continuation. But it became increasingly difficult for Jane to cope with the children, and even to care for her husband. Fortunately, a modern wheelchair was available that Stephen could easily operate. And students often ran in to check on him and help if needed. By that time, Hawking was already a professor of mathematics. It is interesting that for the first time he covered many of the topics in the textbook almost in parallel with the students, ahead of them by only a couple of weeks.

IN free time Hawking was a scientist. Most of all, he was fascinated by cosmology and black holes, which, as Stephen argued, “evaporate”, losing energy due to specific radiation. To this day it is still called Hawking radiation. The whole world soon learned about the scientist's discoveries. scientific world. Prizes poured in one after another, Stephen did not expect such recognition.

Despite the obvious difficulties, the Hawking family looked quite happy from the outside.

But only from the outside... Jane is somewhat recent years haunted by the same nightmare: her husband dies, and she is left alone with three children and accumulated problems.

Should we blame her for the fact that one day a woman could not stand it and succumbed to a new feeling? Jonathan Jones, a musician from the church choir, was strong, healthy, strong. On a voluntary basis, he helped the Hawking family and, in the meantime, won Jane's heart. Stephen understood what was happening, but... he let things take their course. He himself was afraid that his days were numbered, and he wanted his wife and children not to be left alone.

This triangle could have tormented its participants for a long time if not for chance. In 1985, while in Switzerland, Stephen contracted pneumonia. Complex operations did not yield results; the patient had to undergo a tracheotomy. From now on there was a tube sticking out of his throat, and he could no longer speak. Jane's hands dropped. She helped as best she could, but her enthusiasm was fading. A few years later, the couple divorced.

Those around him felt sorry for Stephen: who needs him now? To say anything, he had to type it with his finger, and speech synthesizer reproduced what he had written. But nurse Elaine Mason understood him without words. Spending day after day with the physicist, the woman became attached to this smart and different person. In 1995, they quietly got married.

Over the long 11 years of their life together, Elaine saved Stephen from death several times. She was there when he was choking, coughing, and losing consciousness. But for her this burden was too heavy. They divorced, humbly letting each other go.

Stephen Hawking today

Stephen Hawking is alone today. However, one is not quite the right word. Next to him are his students and colleagues, with whom he never ceases to discuss problems. modern science. He is confident that there are still many discoveries ahead. Children do not abandon the scientist - he and his daughter Lucy jointly wrote a children's book about the boy George and his adventures in the Universe.

73-year-old Hawking is not going to die, because there is still so much to do. After all, he still doesn't have Nobel Prize, although he fully deserves it. If an award were given for willpower, desire to live and unshakable spirit, he undoubtedly would have received it long ago.

Death of a Scientist

Famous theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking. The scientist was 76 years old and died at his home in Cambridge. A representative of the scientist’s family told the BBC about this. Later, Hawking’s children, Lucy, Robert and Tim, made a corresponding statement.

Stephen Hawking was born in 1942 in Oxford. At the age of 20 he graduated from Oxford University with a BA in mathematics and physics, and four years later, when he was 24, he received a PhD from Trinity Hall College, Cambridge University.

Hawking was one of the founders of quantum cosmology. In particular, he studied the theory of the origin of the world as a result of the Big Bang. In addition, the scientist made a number of important discoveries in the theory of black holes. These low-mass regions, according to Hawking's hypothesis, lose energy by emitting radiation across their event horizon and eventually “die.”

In 1963, when Hawking was 21 and graduating from Oxford University, doctors diagnosed him with an incurable disease: amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a motor neuron disease that leaves a person's muscles unable to move. According to the ALS Association, the disease is "100% fatal." After the discovery of this disease in Hawking, doctors claimed that the scientist would not live even two years. However, the physicist was able to prove that the doctors were wrong about this. Their dire predictions went unconfirmed for five decades, leading some medical experts to question whether he had been diagnosed correctly.

Hawking was married twice. His first wife was Jane Wilde, whom he met at university. The young people got married in 1965, and subsequently had three children - Lucy, Robert and Tim. In 1995, this union broke up. The story about the difficult relationship between the spouses was filmed in 2015 by director James Marsh. Actor Eddie Redmayne, who played the role of a scientist in “The Universe of Stephen Hawking,” received an Oscar for his work.

In 1995, Hawking married for the second time. The physicist’s wife was his nurse Elaine Mason (pictured), who looked after him after the scientist lost his speech. However, after 11 years of marriage, the couple also decided to divorce.

Photo: Victor Ruiz Caballero / Reuters

Despite the disease, due to which the scientist was almost completely paralyzed, Hawking led an active lifestyle. While confined to a wheelchair, he continued to engage in science and self-education, attended seminars, and also took part in conferences.

Stephen Hawking and Nelson Mandela

In 1993, Hawking joked that he had only one complaint: his speech synthesizer, with which the scientist spoke, did not accurately reflect his British accent. “The only problem is that the machine gives me an American accent,” Hawking said.

The physicist was known for his popular scientific works. In 1998, one of Hawking's most famous books, A Brief History of Time, was published. Subsequently, more than 10 million copies were sold worldwide. He also authored the works “Black Holes and Young Universes” (1993) and “The World in a Nutshell” (2001). In 2006, together with his daughter Lucy Hawking, the scientist wrote a book for children, “George and the Secrets of the Universe.”

Since 2015, as part of the Starmus festival, scientists and artists have been awarded the Stephen Hawking Medal for Science Communication from the Royal Society of London, of which Hawking was a member. It is given for the popularization of scientific knowledge.

Stephen Hawking and Pope Benedict XVI

Stephen Hawking died on March 14 at his home in Cambridge. The cause of his death has not yet been announced. He was 76 years old.