Stephen Hawking (50 page)

So beneath the hyperbole and the media gloss, who is the real Stephen Hawking? He is a force to be reckoned with, of that there is little doubt. His strength of personality is formidable—given his physical condition, how else could he have survived and achieved greatness in more than one arena? He can be ruthless; he drives a hard bargain with life and approaches it head-on. He finds it difficult to compromise; his force of will can sometimes work against him. Many people find him abrasive, but on the other hand he is famous for his sense of humor. He has many close friends and admirers and has proved himself to be a loving and affectionate father. It is impossible to know the man's inner thoughts, so intimately linked as he is to machines, a set of cold devices enabling him to move, speak, and breathe. His face is, if anything, more expressive than most because, aside from his gift for succinct language, it is just about our only window into his mind. A major part of Stephen Hawking is his work, but so few of us can understand it except in the vaguest pictorial terms. His attempt to communicate his understanding to the world at large through his best-selling book has succeeded. Of course, a great many copies of
A Brief History of Time
have hardly been opened, left to adorn bookshelves as fashion accessories; but despite this, there are many—perhaps millions—who have learned more about the Universe we live in through reading his words. He has achieved astounding success by awakening a skeptical public and an even more skeptical media to the beauty of science, a subject at the heart of our society and the future of civilization. The popularization of science has seen a new renaissance, thanks in large measure to his efforts, and indeed there is now a recognized “Hawking factor” in science publishing.

Beyond all this, running deeper than his hugely successful writing career, beyond even his scientific achievements, there remains the human triumph of his very survival, the strength of his spirit in accomplishing more than most of us dream about. Some claim that Stephen Hawking has made it only because of the unfortunate circumstances in which he has found himself, but such glibness denies the very essence of humanity. Others crumble under far less strain. It is the Stephen Hawkings of this world who soar, no matter what befalls them. To those intent upon destroying legends and denigrating achievement, he has a typically modest but perfectly accurate response. It would stand equally well as his own epitaph and as a philosophy of life for all of us to follow: “One has to be grown up enough to realize that life is not fair. You just have to do the best you can in the situation you are in.”
⁴⁶

NOTES

Quotations without sources are from interviews with the author.

1. THE DAY GALILEO DIED

1.
S. W. Hawking,
A Short History
(privately produced pamphlet).

2.
Michael Church, “Games with the cosmos.” Independent (June 6, 1988).

3.
Hawking,
A Short History
.

4.
Church, “Games with the cosmos.”

5.
Albanian
, May 1958.

3. GOING UP

1.
Hawking,
A Short History
.

2.
Ibid.

4. DOCTORS AND DOCTORATES

1.
Hawking,
A Short History
.

2.
Tony Osman, “A master of the Universe.”
Sunday Times Magazine
(June 19, 1988).

3.
S. W. Hawking,
My Experience with ALS
(privately produced pamphlet).

4.
Ibid.

5.
Ibid.

6.
Ibid.

7.
Ibid.

8.
Ibid.

9.
Bryan Appleyard, “Master of the Universe: Will Stephen Hawking live to find the secret?”
Express News
, San Antonio, Texas (July 3, 1988).

10.
Dennis Overbye, “The wizard of space and time.”
Omni
(February 1979): 45–107.

11.
Hawking,
A Short History
.

6. MARRIAGE AND FELLOWSHIP

1.
Hawking,
A Short History
.

2.
Ibid.

3.
John Boslough,
Beyond the Black Hole: Stephen Hawking's Universe.
London: Fontana, 1985.

4.
Appleyard, “Master of the Universe.”

5.
Bob Sipehen, “The sky's no limit in the career of Stephen Hawking.”
West Australian
(June 16, 1990).

6.
20/20
, ABC Television broadcast, 1989.

7.
Ellen Walton, “A brief history of hard times.”
Guardian
(August 9, 1989).

8.
Overbye, “The wizard of space and time.”

9.
Michael Harwood, “The Universe and Dr. Hawking.”
New York Times Magazine
(January 23, 1983).

10.
Dennis Overbye,
Lonely Hearts of the Cosmos
. Boston: Little, Brown, 1999.

8. THE BREAKTHROUGH YEARS

1.
Jerry Adler, Gerald C. Lubenow, and Maggie Malone, “Reading God's mind.”
Newsweek
(June 13, 1988).

2.
Stephen Hawking,
A Brief History of Time
. London: Bantam, 1988.

3.
Overbye,
Lonely Hearts of the Cosmos.

4.
Ibid.

5.
Ian Ridpath, “Black hole explorer.”
New Scientist
(May 4, 1978): 307.

6.
Boslough,
Beyond the Black Hole
, p. 25.

7.
Timothy Ferris, “Mind over matter.”
Vanity Fair
(June 1984).

8.
Overbye,
Lonely Hearts.

9. WHEN BLACK HOLES EXPLODE

1.
S. W. Hawking, B. Carter, and J. Bardeen,
Communications in Mathematical Physics
, 31 (1973): 161–170.

2.
Hawking,
A Brief History of Time
, p. 105.

3.
S. W. Hawking,
Scientific American
(January 1977): 34–40.

4.
S. W. Hawking,
Nature
, 248 (1974): 30–31.

5.
J. Taylor and P. Davies,
Nature
, 250 (1974): 37–38.

10. THE FOOTHILLS OF FAME

1.
Hawking,
My Experience with ALS
.

2.
Overbye,
Lonely Hearts.

3.
Ibid.

4.
Alan Lightman and Roberta Brawer,
Origins: The Lives and Worlds of Modern Cosmologists
. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard, 1990, p. 406.

5.
Harwood, “The Universe and Dr. Hawking.”

6.
Overbye,
Lonely Hearts.

7.
Appleyard, “Master of the Universe.”

8.
Ferris, “Mind over matter.”

9.
Boslough,
Beyond the Black Hole
, p. 25.

10.
Ferris, “Mind over matter.”

11.
Walton, “A brief history of hard times.”

12.
Ibid.

13.
Appleyard, “Master of the Universe.”

14.
Walton, “A brief history of hard times.”

15.
Appleyard, “Master of the Universe.”

16.
Ibid.

17.
Ibid.

18.
Ibid.

19.
20/20
, ABC Television broadcast.

20.
Harwood, “The Universe and Dr. Hawking.”

21.
Hawking,
A Brief History of Time
.

22.
Appleyard, “Master of the Universe.”

23.
Jeremy Hornsby and Ian Ridpath, “Mind over matter.”
Sunday Telegraph Magazine
(October 28, 1979).

24.
Kitty Ferguson, Stephen Hawking,
A Quest for the Theory of Everything
. New York: Bantam, 1992.

25.
Hawking,
A Brief History of Time
.

26.
D. Page, “Hawking's timely story.”
Nature
, 333 (1988): 742–743.

27.
Hawking,
A Brief History of Time.

28.
Ibid.

29.
Appleyard, “Master of the Universe.”

30.
Overbye,
Lonely Hearts.

31.
Ibid.

11. BACK TO THE BEGINNING

1.
Hawking,
A Brief History of Time
, pp. 140–141.

12. SCIENCE CELEBRITY

1.
Cambridge Evening News
(January 31, 1978).

2.
Boslough,
Beyond the Black Hole
, p. 28.

3.
Harwood, “The Universe and Dr. Hawking.”

4.
Ibid.

5.
Overbye, “The wizard of space and time.”

6.
Shames, “Stephen Hawking: A thinking kind of hero.” 1988.

7.
Sunday Telegraph Magazine.

8.
Osman, “A master of the Universe.”

9.
Colin Wills, “Triumph of mind over matter.”
Sunday Mirror
(September 4, 1988).

10.
“The sky's no limit in the career of Stephen Hawking.”
West Australian
(1989).

11.
Ferris, “Mind over matter.”

12.
Overbye,
Lonely Hearts.

13.
Ibid.

14.
Shames, “Stephen Hawking: A thinking kind of hero.”

15.
John Gribbin,
In Search of the Big Bang.
New York: Penguin, 1999, pp. 387–388.

13. WHEN THE UNIVERSE HAS BABIES

1.
E. Fahri and A. Guth,
Physics Letters
, 183B (1987): 149–153.

2.
Hawking,
A Brief History of Time
, p. 137.

14. A BRIEF HISTORY OF TIME

1.
“Book news.”
Bookseller
, October 21, 1988.

2.
Ibid.

3.
Boslough,
Beyond the Black Hole
, p. 26.

4.
Ibid.
, p. 27.

5.
Leonore Fleischer, “Talk of the trade.”
Publishers Weekly
(January 15, 1985).

6.
Walton, “A brief history of hard times.”

7.
“Top city scientist taken to hospital.”
Cambridge Evening News
(August 17, 1985).

8.
Walton, “A brief history of hard times.”

9.
Ibid.

10.
Ferguson,
Stephen Hawking: A Quest for the Theory of Everything.

11.
“Book news.”
Bookseller
(October 21, 1988).

12.
Ibid.

13.
Ibid.

14.
Ibid.

15.
Charles Oulton, “Cosmic writer shames book world.”
Sunday Times
(August 1988).

16.
Ibid.

17.
“Book news.”
Bookseller.

18.
Denise Housby,
Cambridge Evening News
(August 30, 1988).

19.
John Maddox, “The big bang book.”
Nature
, 335 (1988): 267.

20.
Simon Jenkins, “A dance to the music of imaginary time.”
Sunday Times
(August 28, 1988).

21.
Maddox, “The Big Bang book.”

22.
“Up and down the city road.”
Independent Magazine
(April 27, 1991).

23.
Letters page,
Independent Magazine
(May 4, 1991).

24.
Ibid.

25.
Jenkins, “A dance to the music of imaginary time.”

15. THE END OF PHYSICS?

1.
Stephen Hawking,
Newsweek
(June 13, 1988).

2.
M. Green,
Scientific American
(September 1986): 44–49.

16. FAME AND FORTUNE

1.
Tim Verney, “Top cash prize for brilliant city academic.”
Cambridge Evening News
(January 21, 1988).

2.
Alan Kersey, “Musical tribute to brave professor.”
Cambridge Evening News
(June 1989).

3.
Hawking,
A Brief History of Time.

4.
David Gritten, “A brief movie of time.”
Sunday Correspondent
(1990).

5.
Ibid.

6.
James Delingpole, “Limelight.”
Evening Standard
(June 27, 1990).

7.
Nigel Hawkes, “Defying the gravity of physics.”
The Times
(October 27, 1990).

8.
Pauline Hunt, “Glittering triumph of an inspiring family.”
Cambridge Evening News
(July 19, 1988).

9.
Osman, “A master of the Universe.”

10.
Appleyard, “Master of the Universe.”

11.
Ibid.

17. A BRIEF HISTORY OF TIME TRAVEL

1.
John Gribbin,
In Search of the Edge of Time.
New York: Penguin, 1999.

2.
Kip Thorne,
Black Holes and Time Warps.
New York: Norton, 1994.

3.
See also John and Mary Gribbin,
Richard Feynman: A Life in Science.
London: Viking, 1997.

4.
Stephen Hawking,
The Illustrated Brief History of Time,
London: Bantam, 1996. This is much more than its title implies, being in effect a completely new book, which is much more accessible than the original.

5.
Kip Thorne,
Black Holes and Time Warps
, p. 521.

18. STEPHEN HAWKING: SUPERSTAR

1.
Robert Crampton, “Intelligence Test.”
The Times Magazine
(April 8, 1995).

2.
John Turney,
The Guardian
(November 10, 2001).

3.
Evening Standard
(April 2, 1993).

4.
The Times
(March 7, 1994).

5.
Ibid.
(April 21, 1994).

6.
Express
(July 1, 1994).

7.
Sun
(March 30, 1993).