Stephen Hawking
Authors: John Gribbin
S T E P H E N
H A W K I N G
A LIFE IN SCIENCE
REVISED AND UPDATED EDITION
MICHAEL WHITE
AND
JOHN GRIBBIN
PEGASUS BOOKS
NEW YORK LONDON
For the grandchildren
â
John Gribbin
CONTENTS
5
From Black Holes to the Big Bang
13
When the Universe Has Babies
14
A Brief History of Time
17
A Brief History of Time Travel
20
The Topsy-Turvy Universe of a Global Icon
W
hen we first saw this book published in January 1992, it coincided with Stephen Hawking's fiftieth birthday. By that time, he was a world-renowned scientist, but he was also recognized by the public from a TV special about him that had recently been broadcast.
Neither of us imagined how successful
A Life in Science
would be. It became a #1 bestseller in Britain and stayed in the
Sunday Times
best-sellers list for three months. It was also translated into over two dozen languages and is considered by many to be the definite biography of Stephen Hawking.
And yet, even more unimaginable to us as we were researching and writing the book during 1990 and 1991 was that the hero of the story, the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge, would still be alive and working at the forefront of physics some quarter of a century later.
Today, Stephen Hawking is one of the most famous and immediately recognizable people in the world, a fact that has been helped enormously by the recent movie
The Theory of Everything
, which has been both a commercial and critical success. 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 likely 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 millionsâpublishing statistics usually associated with the likes of James Patterson or Dan Brown. 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 fifty years ago when he embarked on cosmological research at Cambridge University.
During that half-century, 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 (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), 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 the many TV dramas and films made about him, 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 contextâindeed, to show that, for Stephen Hawking, science and life are inextricably linked.
Michael White, Perth
John Gribbin, Lewes
March 2015
S T E P H E N
H A W K I N G
A LIFE IN SCIENCE
I
n an upscale restaurant near Cambridge city center, twelve young men and women sit around a large, linen-covered table set with plates and dishes, glasses, and cutlery. To one side is a man in a wheelchair. He is older than the others. He looks terribly frail, almost withered away to nothing, slumped motionless and seemingly lifeless against the black cloth cushion of his wheelchair. His hands, thin and pale, the fingers slender, lie in his lap. Set into the center of his sinewy throat, just below the collar of his open-necked shirt, is a plastic breathing device about two inches in diameter. But despite his disabilities, his face is alive and boyish, neatly brushed brown hair falling across his brow, only the lines beneath his eyes belying the fact that he is
a contemporary of Keith Richards and Donald Trump. His head lolls forward, but from behind steel-rimmed spectacles his clear blue eyes are alert, raised slightly to survey the other faces around him. Beside him sits a nurse, her chair angled toward his as she positions a spoon to his lips and feeds him.
Occasionally she wipes his mouth.
There is an air of excitement in the restaurant. Around this man the young people laugh and joke, and occasionally address him or make a flippant remark in his direction. A moment later the babble of human voices is cut through by a rasping sound, a metallic voice, like something from the set of
Star Wars
âthe man in the wheelchair makes a response that brings peals of laughter from the whole table. His eyes light up, and what has been described by some as “the greatest smile in the world” envelops his whole face. Suddenly you know that this man is very much alive.
As the diners begin their main course, there is a commotion at the restaurant's entrance. A few moments later, the headwaiter walks toward the table escorting a smiling redhead in a fake-fur coat. Everyone at the table turns her way as she approaches, and there is an air of hushed expectation as she smiles across at them and says “Hello” to the gathering. She appears far younger than her years and looks terribly glamorous, a fact exaggerated by the general scruffiness of the young people at the table. Only the older man in the wheelchair is neatly dressed, in a plain jacket and neatly pressed shirt, his immaculately smart nurse beside him.
“I'm so sorry I'm late,” she says to the party. “My car was wheel-clamped in London.” Then she adds, laughing, “There must be some cosmic significance in that!”
Faces look toward her and smile, and the man in the wheelchair beams. She walks around the table toward him, as his nurse stands at his side. The woman stops two steps in front of the wheelchair, crouches a little, and says, “Professor Hawking, I'm delighted to meet you. I'm Shirley MacLaine.” He smiles up at her and the metallic voice simply says, “Hello.”
For the rest of the meal, Shirley MacLaine sits next to her host, plying him with question after question in an attempt to discover his views on subjects that concern her deeply. She is interested in metaphysics and spiritual matters. Having spoken to holy men and teachers around the world, she has formulated her own personal theories concerning the meaning of existence. She has strong beliefs about the meaning of life and the reason for our being here, the creation of the Universe, and the existence of God. But they are only beliefs. The man beside her is perhaps the greatest physicist of our time, the subjects of his scientific theories the origin of the Universe, the laws that govern its existence, and the eventual fate of all that has been createdâincluding you, me, and Ms. Shirley MacLaine. His fame has spread far and wide; his name is known by millions around the world. She asks the professor if he believes that there is a God who created the Universe and guides His creation. He smiles momentarily, and the machine voice says, “No.”
The professor is neither rude nor condescending; brevity is simply his way. Each word he says has to be painstakingly spelled out on a computer attached to his wheelchair and operated by tiny movements of two of the fingers of one hand, almost the last vestige of bodily freedom he has. His guest accepts his words and nods. What he is saying is not
what she wants to hear, and she does not agreeâbut she can only listen and take note, for, if nothing else, his views have to be respected.
Later, when the meal is over, the party leaves the restaurant and returns to the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics at the university, and the two celebrities are left alone with the ever-present nurse in Professor Hawking's office. For the next two hours, until tea is served in the common room, the Hollywood actress asks the Cambridge professor question after question.
By the time of their encounter in December 1988, Shirley MacLaine had met many people, the great and the infamous. Several times nominated for an Oscar and winner of one for her role in
Terms of Endearment
, she was probably a more famous name than her host that day. Doubtless, though, her meeting with Stephen Hawking will remain one of the most memorable of her life. For this man, weighing no more than ninety pounds and completely paralyzed, speechless, and unable to lift his head should it fall forward, has been proclaimed “Einstein's heir,” “the greatest genius of the late twentieth century,” “the finest mind alive,” and even, by one journalist, “Master of the Universe.” He has made fundamental breakthroughs in cosmology and, perhaps more than anyone else alive, he has pushed forward our understanding of the Universe we live in. If that were not enough, he has won dozens of scientific prizes. He has been made a CBEâcommander of the British empireâand then Companion of Honour by Queen Elizabeth II and has written a popular science book,
A Brief History of Time
, which stayed on the best-seller list
for five years from 1988 to 1993 and has to date sold over ten million copies worldwide.
How did all this happen? How has a man with a progressive wasting disease fought off the ravages of his disability to overcome every obstacle in his path and win through? How has he managed to achieve far more than the vast majority of able-bodied people would ever have dreamed of accomplishing?