When Stephen Hawking was involved in a minor road accident in
Cambridge city center early in 1991, within twelve hours American
TV networks were on the phone to his publisher, Bantam, for a lowdown
on the story. The fact that he suffered only minor injuries and
was back at his desk within days was irrelevant. But then anything
about Stephen Hawking is newsworthy. This would never have
happened to any other scientist in the world. Apart from the fact
that physicists are seen as somehow different from other human
beings, existing outside the normal patterns of human life, there is
no other scientist alive as famous as Stephen Hawking.
But Stephen Hawking is no ordinary scientist. His book A Brief
History of Time has notched up worldwide sales in the millions—
publishing statistics usually associated with the likes of Jeffrey
Archer and Stephen King. What is even more astonishing is that
Hawking’s book deals with a subject so far removed from normal
bedtime reading that the prospect of tackling such a text would
send the average person into a paroxysm of inadequacy. Yet, as the
world knows, Professor Hawking’s book is a massive hit and has
made his name around the world. Somehow he has managed to
circumvent prejudice and to communicate his esoteric theories
directly to the lay reader.
However, Stephen Hawking’s story does not begin or end with A
Brief History of Time. First and foremost, he is a very fine scientist.
Indeed, he was already established at the cutting edge of theoretical
physics long before the general public was even aware of his existence.
His career as a scientist began over thirty years ago when he
embarked on cosmological research at Cambridge University.
During those thirty years, he has perhaps done more than anyone
to push back the boundaries of our understanding of the Universe.
His theoretical work on black holes and his progress in advancing
our understanding of the origin and nature of the Universe have
been groundbreaking and often revolutionary.
As his career has soared, he has led a domestic life as alien to
most people as his work is esoteric. At the age of twenty-one
Hawking discovered that he had the wasting disease ALS, also
called motor neuron disease, and he has spent much of his life confined
to a wheelchair. However, he simply has not allowed his illness
to hinder his scientific development. In fact, many would argue
that his liberation from the routine chores of life has enabled him to
make greater progress than if he were able bodied. He has achieved
global fame as a science popularizer with his multimillion-selling
book, and more recently a BBC television series, Stephen Hawking’s
Universe, while maintaining a high-powered career as a physicist.
Stephen Hawking does not like to dwell too much on his disabilities,
and even less on his personal life. He would rather people
thought of him as a scientist first, popular science writer second,
and, in all the ways that matter, a normal human being with the
same desires, drives, dreams, and ambitions as the next person. In
this book we have tried our best to respect his wishes and have
endeavored to paint a picture of a man with talents in abundance,
but nonetheless a man like any other.
In attempting to describe Professor Hawking’s work as well as
the life of the man behind the science, we hope to enable the reader
to see both from different perspectives. Although there are
inevitable overlaps in the story, we hope this will help to place the
science within the human context—indeed, to show that, for
Stephen Hawking, science and life are inextricably linked.
Michael White, Perth
John Gribbin, Lewes
September 2002
