As most of us know, one of the greatest scientists of all time, Stephen Hawking passed away at the age of 76 and he will be sorely missed by the science community. I didn't really feel like posting anything today because of some things that happened where someone accused me of being a liar without proof, but when I heard of his death, I decided to honour him and acknowledge his contributions to the scientific community. I don't really think this post is going to be a long one, because as I said previously, I'm not really in the mood. I'm just mainly going to talk about his life and a few of his awesome and groundbreaking discoveries.
“The greatest sign of intelligence is an ability to adapt to change”
Stephen Hawking was born on the 8th of January, 1942 in England. Although in school at first he was not very bright, he eventually began to get better academically. His father wanted him to study medicine at the University of Oxford, which was his alma mater, he fell sick on the day of the scholarship exam and since his family couldn't afford his tuition without that scholarship, he had to continue his studies at St Albans School. This eventually proved even a benefit to him because he made some acquaintances with whom he played chess, made fireworks, model airplanes and boat and had long philosophical debated about Christianity and extrasensory perception. With the aid of Dikran That's, their mathematics teacher, they began to build computers from an old telephone switchboard, old clock parts and other accessories. In fact, it was due to the fact that he looked up to this teacher that made him eventually decide to pursue mathematics in the University, instead of medicine like his father wanted.
He eventually had to study physics and chemistry in Oxford University, due to the unavailability of mathematics as a course. He didn't really have a challenging time in the University and the most notable part is his final exam, where his bad study habits took a toll on him, rendering him unable to answer the theory aspects but able to accurately answer the practical questions. He needed First Class honours to be able to study mathematics at Cambridge University, but eventually ended up between First and Second Class degree and had to have an oral examination. This was what boosted him up to First Class. It was in graduate school that he developed ALS, a motor neuron disease, and was given a bleak prognosis by doctors which eventually proved to be false. At first depressed and seeing no point to continuing his education, he was encouraged to continue by his supervisor, Dennis William Sciama.
His Career
Many scientific breakthroughs in the aspects of physics and mathematics can be attributed to him. I'm just going to talk about little about some of them. Truthfully, I don't really get the concepts nor do I fully understand them, but I will try my best to honour Stephen Hawking and all he achieved.
Gravitational Singularity
A gravitational singularity is a phenomenon that occurs in space-time where the gravitational field of a celestial body becomes infinite in a way that doesn't depend on the coordinate system. The gravitational field of this celestial body makes it to appear infinitely curved. Although, the existence of gravitational singularities are unconfirmed.
Black Holes
He postulated that the total surface area of a black hole could never get smaller, although this was later disproved. He also postulated that black holes could be characterized by three parameters, which were mass, electric charge and angular momentum.
Hawking Radiation
He used quantum theory to explain how black holes emit heat continually until they slowly but eventually exhaust their energy completely and then vanish.
He was a great man and he had many more awesome works to his name. He will be sorely missed. He was an inspiring man who proved to the whole world that a disability doesn't define the person. Even though he was suffering from a debilitating disease, he still became known as one of the greatest scientists to have ever lived.
P. S. To prevent further discord I am posting images proving that the picture of Hawking I got from Flickr is free.
As everybody can see, I have made sure that no misunderstanding can occur again. Thank you very much.