It was the time of mid 1970s, and a genius boy was about to complete his doctorate in physics, when he learn that the disease which he already carrying would gradually paralyze all his movements. And his doctor said of him that he had only two more years to live.
‘Right then,’ he thought to himself. ‘Now that I don’t need to worry about things like pensions or paying the bills, I can concentrate on trying to understand the Universe.’
Since the disease was progressing rapidly, he was forced to come up with ways of explaining his ideas as simply and as briefly as possible.
Two and a half years went by, twenty years went by, and that boy is still alive being the world's most reputed and decorated theoretical physicist and cosmologist, an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a lifetime member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, and in 2009 was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the United States, Stephen Hawking. He can communicate his highly abstract ideas through a tiny computer hooked up to his wheelchair and which has a vocabulary of only 500 words.
‘Right then,’ he thought to himself. ‘Now that I don’t need to worry about things like pensions or paying the bills, I can concentrate on trying to understand the Universe.’
Since the disease was progressing rapidly, he was forced to come up with ways of explaining his ideas as simply and as briefly as possible.
Two and a half years went by, twenty years went by, and that boy is still alive being the world's most reputed and decorated theoretical physicist and cosmologist, an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a lifetime member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, and in 2009 was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the United States, Stephen Hawking. He can communicate his highly abstract ideas through a tiny computer hooked up to his wheelchair and which has a vocabulary of only 500 words.
He wrote his classic A Brief History of Time, which stayed on the British Sunday Times bestsellers list for a record-breaking 237 weeks. With his other works like Black Holes and Baby Universes and Other Essays, The Universe in a Nutshell, The Theory of Everything, and the latest The Grand Design he is still perplexing the curious minds with his genius. He is responsible for creating an entirely new vision of modern physics.
Rather than leading him into a life of complete disability, the illness forced him to discover a new way of thinking.
Rather than leading him into a life of complete disability, the illness forced him to discover a new way of thinking.
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