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Real Lives home page and list of other Real Lives
The public image of Stephen Hawking is of a scientific genius, whose main appeal is that he has not only mastered the secrets of the universe, but has also managed to fight a profound disability, motor neurone disease, which confines him to a wheelchair.
Many of his peers argue that it is his condition, which he developed in adulthood, that has elevated him to such importance in the public mind. Professor Roger Penrose, a top scientist, says: 'I think Stephen, because of his condition, is treated rather as some kind of oracle. It's not his fault, of course.' In reply, Hawking claims that 'all over the world people want a hero of science like Einstein. My ambition was to understand the universe not to be famous.'
Early days.
Stephen William Hawking was born on 8 January 1942 in Oxford, eldest child of middle class but unconventional parents. He was a talkative child, but not precocious – he learnt to read late. His father, Dr Frank Hawking, a medical scientist who travelled the world researching tropical diseases, encouraged his son's curiosity.
Hawking, who went to a public school in St Albans, did not like conventional lessons, his handwriting was terrible and he was not competitive, says his mother. He was often near the bottom of the class.
But by the age of 10, he knew he wanted to be a scientist. He liked designing complicated Meccano models, and at the age of 16 he and his school friends designed and built a working computer out of parts of old machines. He spoke quickly, a characteristic his friends labelled Hawkingese. His final school report said: 'He will go far.'
Following in his father's footsteps, he applied to University College, Oxford, arriving in 1959, aged 17, to read physics and mathematics. He liked drinking and parties, and was a keen member of the college rowing club. He never did much work: 'I have calculated that I did 1,000 hours' work in my three years at Oxford, that works out to an average of one hour a day.'
Such a relaxed attitude did not prevent Hawking achieving academic success. He left Oxford with a first-class degree and moved to Cambridge to take a PhD in cosmology. There, the symptoms of the disease that was to change his life first became apparent – lack of co-ordination, falls and confusion.
Life changes.
Motor neurone disease was diagnosed, and doctors told him he had just two years to live. 'Why should this happen to me?' he says. 'It wasn't fair. But then I realised life wasn't fair. I saw a boy in the next bed in hospital die of leukaemia. Clearly, I was better off than him.'
Father Powney, a college friend, sees this moment as a turning point: 'I think he was determined that he would leave behind him something of real value and that was what spurred him to start working.'
Hawking's PhD, on black holes and the 'Big Bang' that started the universe, was well-argued and original, impressing his teachers and other scientists.
Shortly after he finished it, in July 1965, Hawking married 21-year-old Jane Wild, a language student from St Albans. He got a job as a research fellow at the department of applied maths and theoretical physics at Cambridge, and the newly-weds moved into a tiny house close to the university. Two years later, they had their first child, Robert, then two more.
A brief history of genius.
Hawking began producing novel ideas about relativity (describing the very large concepts of time, space and gravity) and quantum mechanics (describing the very small universe of atoms and molecules). One of these new ideas became known as 'Hawking radiation'.
This trailblazing nearly came to an end when, in 1985, on a working trip to Geneva, Hawking caught pneumonia. He was unable to breathe, and to save him, his wife gave permission for a tracheotomy operation, which allowed him to breathe through a hole in his windpipe. But the operation meant he would never speak again. It was several years before he got the electronic voice synthesiser, which added to his distinctive public persona.
In spring 1988, A Brief History of Time was published – eventually 25 million copies of the book were sold. He has written and contributed to numerous other works. But success has taken its toll. In 1995, he separated and divorced his wife, and married one of his nurses, Elaine.
In 1992, he narrated a documentary of A Brief History of Time. His instantly recognisable voice has been used in adverts for BT, among other companies, although he always talks about big ideas – communication, the nature of the universe – not products. He also lent his voice to an animation of himself in The Simpsons.
But despite the professional and popular tributes, even Hawking accepts that he is not another Einstein.
This website contains links to other websites which are not under the control of and are not maintained by Channel 4 Television. Channel 4 Television is not responsible for the content of these sites and does not necessarily endorse the material on them.
Stephen Hawking.
www.hawking.org.uk/
Biographical, educational and scholarly site on Hawking's life and ideas.
It also contains his views on his own disability, and useful related sites.
Stephen Hawking's Universe.
www.pbs.org/wnet/hawking/html/home.html
Expert site on Hawking and his ideas with a downloadable guide for teachers.
It also has links to other cosmologists.
Stephen Hawking, the Big Bang and God.
www.leaderu.com/real/ri9404/bigbang.html
Among other things, has a critique of Hawking's work by Dr Henry Schaefer
III, director of the Center for Computational Quantum Chemistry, University
of Georgia.
Foundations of Cosmological Thought.
www.physics.gmu.edu/classinfo/astr103/
CourseNotes/ECText/ectxt103.html
Physics website of George Mason University, Virginia, with lots of interesting
links and ideas.
The Stephen Hawking Pages.
www.psyclops.com/hawking
Fan site with some quirky and useful links and information. One of the
main attractions of this site is The Hawking Forum.
Hawking Radiation.
www.weburbia.com/physics/hawking.html
A discussion of Hawking's discovery that black holes radiate energy and
are not quite black.
Stephen Hawking's Universe.
www.pbs.org/wnet/hawking/html/home.html
Explores such questions as Where do we come from? and How did the universe
begin? Contains a fun Q&A section.
Motor Neurone Disease Association.
www.mndassociation.org
National organisation dedicated to the support of people with MND and those
who care for them. Provides a huge range of free booklets, leaflets and fact
sheets that can be ordered online.
A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking (Bantam, 1995) £7.99.
An exploration of our knowledge of astrophysics, and the nature of the
universe, reviewing the great theories of the cosmos, from Galileo and
Newton to Einstein. A best-seller, but not an easy read.
Music to Move the Stars by Jane Hawking (Macmillan, 2000) £6.99.
An autobiographical account of Jane Hawking's life with her first husband, Stephen Hawking. The author has included her thoughts on the media reaction to her exceptionally candid memoir.
Stephen Hawking's Universe by David Filkin and Stephen Hawking (Basic
Books Publishing, 1998) £12.50.
An account of Hawking's theories about the nature of the universe, and how matter can be produced from nothing at all.
The Physics of Star Trek by Lawrence Krauss and Stephen Hawking (Flamingo,
1997) £6.99.
An easy-to-understand introduction to the complexities of today's and tomorrow's physics. The authors use Trekkie examples to assess what is possible according to the laws of physics.
Introducing Stephen Hawking by JP McEvoy and Oscar Zarate (Icon Books,
1999) £8.99.
Beginner's guide to the complex ideas in A Brief History of Time. Hawking has made discoveries about the overlap between the two theories of relativity and quantum mechanics.
God, the Big Bang and Stephen Hawking by David Wilkinson and Arnold
Wolfendale (Monarch, 1996) £5.59.
Examines questions about the origin of the universe from the viewpoints of both science and religion.
Stephen Hawking: A life in science by Michael White and John Gribbin
(Penguin, 1998) £7.19.
A moving biography that looks at both Hawking's scientific achievement and his personal life.
Motor Neurone Disease Association.
PO Box 246
Northampton NN1 2PR
Tel: 01604 250505
Fax: 01604 638289/624726
Helpline: 08457 626262
E-mail: enquiries@mndassociation.org
Website: www.mndassociation.org
National organisation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland dedicated to the support of people with MND and those who care for them.
The Kepplewray Centre.
Broughton-in-Furness
Cumbria LA20 6HE
Tel: 01229 716936
E-mail: stay@kepplewray.org.uk
Website: www.kepplewray.org.uk
Educational, activity and holiday centre in the Lake District for people of all abilities and disabilities.
Words +
1220 W. Avenue J
Lancaster, CA 93534-2902
USA
Tel: 001 661 723 6523
Email: info@words-plus.com
Website: www.words-plus.com
Company that creates communication and computer products to help people
with diseases such as MND.
Produced to accompany The Real Stephen Hawking, produced by RDF, first screened on Channel 4 in January 2001.
Writer: Daniel Lee
Project manager: Caroline Sutton
Editor: Aleks Sierz
Web designer: Alan (Fred) Pipes.
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