An amazing man, whom has accomplished so much even with his debilitating condition. Many would have given up and died a long time ago.... but not Steven Hawkins. He often admits, it was his condition that allows him to out think other scientists.
After falling while ice skating during his first year as a grad student at Cambridge University, Hawking was told he he had the degenerative motor neuron disease Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and had only 2 1/2 years to live. Obviously that prognosis was light years off, but it seems early onset of the disease was a blessing in disguise, of sorts. Most ALS patients are diagnosed in their mid-50s and live another two to five years, but those diagnosed earlier tend to have a slower-progressing form of the disease. Furthermore, the loss of motor skills forced the burgeoning cosmologist to become more creative. "By losing the finer dexterity of my hands, I was forced to travel through the universe in my mind and try to visualize the ways in which it worked," he later noted.
