While Stephen Hawking's academic achievements as a physicist, cosmologist and author were impressive, there is another extraordinary side to Stephen's tale...
Digital Desk: Today marks the birthday of renowned physicist Prof. Stephen Hawking. He passed away in 2018 at the age of 76. Hawking's research on black holes, Big Bang Theory, is a significant contribution to physics.
At the age of 21, Stephen Hawking was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a neurological disease. Their movement slowed gradually. He had lost his ability to talk. In the 1980s, though, he maintained the dialogue using a computer-generated voice produced by MIT engineer Dennis Klatt.
Stephen Hawking was an inspiration to scientists throughout the world. Hawking's single sentence has been noted as an inspirational thought. Stephen Hawking contributed significantly to our understanding of black holes and the Big Bang theory. He received 12 honorary degrees as well as America's highest civilian award.
We've collected some of the lesser-known details about Stephen's life and amazing determination, Check Here-
1| His Secret of Birth and Death:
Stephen Hawking was born on the day of Galileo's death and died on the anniversary of Einstein's birth.
2| Stephen as an ordinary primary school student:
Stephen may be considered a genius today, but he was far from the top of his class in elementary school. He didn't learn to read until he was eight, and by nine, his grades were among the lowest in his class!
However, he was constantly inquisitive, and his classmates and professors saw his potential early on, giving him the nickname 'Einstein'.
Stephen began to demonstrate an interest in science near the end of high school and quickly gained an incredible knowledge of time and space.
Now that he was more focused, he wanted to attend Oxford University, but his parents couldn't pay the tuition. Fortunately, he passed the admission exam with flying colours, earning a scholarship and a nearly perfect score in physics.
Later, Stephen described his first two years at Oxford as the dullest of his life, claiming that they were stupidly simple.
3| Stephen was told when he was 21 that he only had a few years to live:
Stephen's family observed he was frequently tripping over and was generally clumsier than usual when he returned home from graduate school for Christmas at the age of 21.
He was transported to the doctor, who ran tests on him for two weeks before diagnosing him with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as motor neurone disease. ALS is a neurological disease in which people gradually lose control of their voluntary muscles.
Doctors warned Stephen, then 21, that he only had two years to live. However, while Stephen's mobility became increasingly difficult and his speech became practically incomprehensible, his sickness proceeded more slowly than the physicians had projected.
Despite the fact that ALS is usually fatal after three years, Stephen managed to prove the doctor's prognosis wrong - and died at the age of 76.
3| Backstory behind Stephen's speech failure:
Stephen's speech had worsened to the point where only his family and closest friends could understand him by the time he was in his thirties.
Then, at the age of 43, he suffered pneumonia, and the outlook was so dire that Stephen's physicians asked his wife if he should be taken off life support.
Stephen's physicians performed a tracheotomy to allow him to breathe after she refused. This entailed making an incision in his windpipe, which meant that the little speech he had left would be lost.
4| Stephen Hawking- A Box Full of Talents:
Scientists rarely appear on sitcoms, but Stephen did, with cameos on 'The Simpsons,' 'Star Trek,' and 'The Big Bang Theory'. Not one to do things half-heartedly, he continued his acting career by appearing in the science show 'A Brief History of Time,' as well as biographical documentaries about his life.
Stephen's artistic abilities extended beyond performing. In 2007, he also co-wrote a children's book with his daughter, Lucy. The book, 'George's Secret Key to the Universe,' discusses rather serious ideas like black holes in kid-friendly language and was so well received that it spawned four sequels.
5| Stephen did a backflip (literally!) at the age of 65:
When Stephen was 65 years old, he was given the opportunity of a lifetime to experience zero gravity. Stephen took off from the space shuttle's runway at Kennedy Space Center in a specially modified plane that simulates zero gravity for passengers. Stephen ditched his chair and even did backflips while floating in space!
"People who knew me well say it was the largest smile they'd ever seen," Stephen says. "For a few minutes, I was Superman."
Of course, Stephen wanted more and stated his ultimate goal: to journey into space.
Hearing this, Richard Branson gave Stephen a free ride on the Virgin Galactic space missions - a winged vehicle specifically intended to carry 'space tourists'. Unfortunately, Stephen was never able to take advantage of his free ride, but he did have a hand in naming the new version of Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo - VSS "Unity."
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