“He was a great scientist and extraordinary man whose work and legacy will live on for years. His courage and perseverance with brilliance and humor inspired people around the world. We will miss him, "- quotes the statement of the children of the physicist Robert, and Lucy.

Life and disease

Stephen Hawking was born on January 8, 1942 in Oxford (Great Britain), where his parents moved from London during the Second World War. The father of the future physicist was a physician, and his mother was an economist, they both graduated from Oxford University. Hawking followed in their footsteps, graduating from the physics department of the same university in 1962, after which he continued his education at the University of Cambridge, where he received his doctorate in 1966.

In 1963, Hawking was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. This is a chronic disease of the central nervous system later led to the almost complete paralysis of the scientist. In 1985, Hawking underwent a tracheostomy after pneumonia, as a result of which he lost the ability to speak. At the same time, the scientist began to use a speech synthesizer, and since 1997 - a computer controlled by a sensor attached to the facial muscles of the cheek.

Hawking has been married twice. In 1965, the scientist married Jane Wilde, a student of the linguistics department of the University of Cambridge. The couple had two sons - Robert (in 1967) and Timothy (in 1979), as well as a daughter, Lucy (in 1970). After more than 20 years of marriage, the couple broke up. Hawking married for the second time in 1995. Nurse Elaine Mason, with whom the scientist parted in 2006, became his wife.

Singularity and entropy

Stephen Hawking's career began in the 1960s, when the third of the classical experiments was carried out, confirming the validity of general relativity (the experiment of Robert Pound and Glen Rebka, carried out in, demonstrated the so-called gravitational redshift - a change in the frequency of light when it passes near a massive object, such as a star).

When it finally became clear that Einstein's theory was correct, it was time to study its most exotic consequences: the expansion of the universe (after Big bang) and the possibility of the existence of black holes - objects that cannot leave the bodies or radiation that have fallen into them.

Image: NASA / WMAP

The Big Bang, in fact, the birth of the observable world, and black holes are associated with gravitational singularities - a feature of space-time, where the equations of general relativity lead to physically incorrect solutions. The first ones were devoted to the singularities. scientific works Hawking. In his dissertation, Hawking applied theorems formulated by his colleague, British mathematician Roger Penrose, to the entire universe.

Penrose was the first to explain the origin of a black hole by a gravitational singularity. According to Penrose, the star turns into a black hole due to gravitational collapse, accompanied by the birth of a trapped surface. Penrose's theorem is considered the first major mathematically rigorous result of Einstein's theory, and Hawking's contribution was that he showed that the universe at the moment and before the Big Bang was in a state of infinite mass density.

STOCKHOLM, March 14. / TASS /. The British theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking was never awarded the Nobel Prize despite numerous offers to award the most prestigious award in science for his scientific contributions.

A possible explanation for this is that so far no one has been able to scientifically confirm the truth of the famous discoveries of a world-renowned scientist who has done a lot to popularize science, Professor of Stockholm University Edward Mörtsel said in an interview with Swedish Radio.

"The fact that they (scientific conclusions) were not confirmed by observations, this was precisely the main obstacle," said Mörtsel, who himself deals with problems. dark matter and the expansion of the universe. He also explained that the Nobel Prize is awarded not for a lifetime contribution to science, but for a specific scientific discovery.

Hawking's main fame was the so-called Hawking radiation - a theory according to which black holes are not actually completely black and give off radiation, albeit very weak. However, no one has yet succeeded in confirming the effectiveness of this theory in practice.

"The problem with Hawking radiation is that usually the larger, the more massive the object, the more radiation is expected from it, while the Hawking radiation is the opposite," added Mörtsel. "The smaller the object, the more energy it has and the stronger its light emission. It is possible that the possibility of creating black holes in laboratory conditions to observe them will be required. " He is absolutely sure that this may be possible in the future.

Stephen William Hawking

Stephen William Hawking passed away Wednesday at the age of 76 at his home in Cambridge. He was born on January 8, 1942 in Oxford. In 1963 he was diagnosed with amyotrophic sclerosis.

Another 22 years later, after pneumonia, the scientist underwent a tracheostomy, as a result of which he lost the ability to speak and began to use a speech synthesizer. However, a serious illness did not prevent Hawking from becoming one of the most famous theoretical physicists of our time.

Hawking's main area of ​​scientific research is cosmology and quantum gravity; he devoted a lot of time to the study of black holes. In particular, the British physicist is the author of the theory of "evaporation" of black holes due to radiation (this phenomenon is called "Hawking radiation").

• Stephen Hawking was born in Oxford on January 8, 1942, exactly 300 years after the death of astronomer Galileo Galilei. At the age of 21, he was diagnosed with a rare form of motor neuron disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The doctors gave him several years to live.
• At school, Stephen was a rather mediocre student, but he was well versed in mathematics and "was randomly fond of chemistry." At nine, his grades were among the worst in his class. However, his teachers recognized his genius, which is why he even earned the nickname "Einstein".

Stephen Hawking on the set of Star Trek with Einstein and Newton

• His father wanted Stephen to take up medicine, but he had no interest in biology. He considered it "too imprecise." As a result, at Oxford, he took up the theory of particles and cosmology, since these areas are little studied by man and gave a lot of opportunities.
• At a meeting of the Royal Society, Hawking interrupted a lecture by renowned astrophysicist Sir Fred Hoyle to inform him that he had made a mistake. When asked how he discovered the error, Hawking replied, "It's just that I've already figured it all out in my head."

With Bill Gates

• In the 1970s, Hawking made major discoveries, including perhaps his most important contribution to cosmology: Hawking radiation (black holes radiate energy until they run out). Even before the publication of his work, Hawking visited Moscow in 1973, where he met with Soviet scientists. They demonstrated to Hawking that, according to the uncertainty principle quantum mechanics rotating black holes must generate and emit particles. In 1987, he met in Moscow with Academician Sakharov.

Image: Liam White / Alarmy Stock Photo

• In the 1980s, Professor Hawking and Professor Jim Hartl proposed a model of the universe that had no boundaries in space and time. The concept was described in A Brief History of Time, which has sold 25 million copies worldwide. Hawking compares the Universe to our planet - "wherever you go, the Earth has no edge", but the planet exists only in two dimensions, and the Universe - in four.
• In 1985, Stephen Hawking developed pneumonia. His condition was so serious that doctors wanted to disconnect him from life support. His wife Jane refused, and doctors performed a tracheotomy to save Stephen's life. So he lost the ability to speak and has since communicated using a voice synthesizer, and he refused to change his "voice" when Intel suggested it.
• Hawking is a kind of "pop star" from science. He has appeared on The Simpsons, Star Trek, The Big Bang Theory and on the Pink Floyd album.

Already at the age of 20, Hawking began to show signs of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, which led to paralysis. And although the disease has deprived the scientist of the ability to control almost all parts of his body, he has already lived much longer than doctors predicted. The fact that Stephen Hawking has achieved such success in science, despite the dire condition, makes him exceptional. He is an excellent example of how powerful mind and spirit a person can have.
Stephen Hawking is one of the most prominent theoretical physicists of our time. Suffice it to say that he held the academic position of Lukasov's professor of mathematics at Cambridge University for many years - so prestigious that only 19 scientists in history (since 1663) have been awarded this privilege.

He has countless awards and prizes. Among the latter are the Presidential Medal of Freedom (2009), the Fundamental Physics Prize (2013) and the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Awards (2015). Probably the only prize he has yet to receive is the Nobel Prize.

We invite you to learn more about this remarkable scientist.

15. A little about the date of his birth
Stephen Hawking was born on Thursday January 8, 1942. This date is notable for the fact that Galileo Galilei, one of the greatest astronomers, physicists, mathematicians and engineers in history, died 300 years earlier on the same day. So on January 8, the greatest mind died and the greatest mind was born, because Hawking also made a huge contribution to mathematics, theoretical physics and astronomy. Also, Elvis Presley and Kim Jong Un were born on January 8. And on January 8, 1902, a law was passed in New York that prohibited public flirting. This is the date.

14. Hawking was born into a poor family
Today, Stephen Hawking's fortune is about $ 20 million. However, as is often the case with self-made millionaires, Hawking grew up in a poor family by today's standards and achieved everything thanks to his ability. He was born in Oxford, his parents were educated people and worked in medical center... When Hawking was eight years old, the family moved from Oxford to St Albans and settled in an inexpensive house requiring extensive renovation that was never done. And the family car was an old London taxi.

13. As a child, he went to a girls' school
Can you imagine how embarrassing it would be for a modern boy to attend a girls' school even for a week? Although teens in puberty might love it - huge selection and no competition! And in those years, little boys were often sent to a girls' school, it was a common practice. And Hawking had to walk to St. Albans High School for Girls, because the parents did not have the material opportunity to send him to a mixed school - she was further away. But since he was not the only boy who went through this, going to a girls' school could hardly have any negative impact on him.

12. At first he was a very average student.
Given what we know about Stephen Hawking today, one would assume he was a brilliant student from day one of school. In fact, he was extremely far from an excellent student and received grades "average" and "below average". Until the age of eight, he could not read, wrote like a chicken with a paw, and, by his own admission, was extremely uncollected and lazy. Surprisingly, his classmates and teachers called him Einstein - perhaps in mockery, or perhaps, having managed to discern something in him that he had not yet discerned in himself. Hawking did not study well because he was dumb or slow; apparently, he simply did not pay much attention to what was happening. But when he began to pay attention to this, he turned into an exceptional student.

11. Hawking got a very good result at his introductory studies at Oxford.
In high school, Hawking became interested in his studies, especially in the natural sciences. And best of all he was given physics. By the time he graduated from school, he had turned from an average student into a brilliant student. Hawking wanted to go to Oxford and for this he definitely needed a scholarship, since his parents were not able to pay for education at the university. And he passed entrance examination with amazingly high scores, especially in physics. The first two years of his studies at the university, he recalls as rather boring - everything that they were taught, he found ridiculously simple.

10. At Oxford, he was part of the varsity rowing team
Most people who don't know much about Stephen Hawking think he was born paralyzed. In fact, in his youth he was very active, went in for sports and until the age of 20 did not encounter any difficulties in this. At Oxford, he was part of the rowing team, loved going with friends to dances and concerts of classical music, which he adored, and generally had fun as best he could after boring years at school. Since his studies did not take much of his energy, he spent time interacting with people and eventually became very popular with students. He began dating his first wife just at the university.

9. Doctors said he would not live to be 24
Doctors discovered the first signs of the disease in Hawking in 1963, and their verdict was unambiguous: he had no more than two and a half years to live. But, fortunately, the doctors were wrong, and Hawking has already lived 50 years longer than they predicted. He is now 74 years old. As a result of the disease, he is completely paralyzed and can only communicate with the help of a computerized system that reacts to the movements of the facial muscles of the cheek.

8. Hawking communicates with the world through a computer
In 1985, Stephen Hawking fell seriously ill, had pneumonia and had to undergo a tracheostomy, after which he lost his ability to speak. I had to hire a 24-hour nurse (who later, by the way, became his second wife). No longer able to speak, Hawking invented to communicate with the help of facial expressions: he raised his eyebrows when he was called the desired letter, and thus words and phrases were composed. Then his friends gave him the Equalizer, a speech synthesizer whose sensor responded to the movement of Hawking's index finger on his right hand. When the finger also stopped moving, the sensor was fixed in the opposite direction of the mimic muscle of the cheek, in which mobility still remains. The synthesizer allows you to select letters, words and phrases from over 3000 words and combinations.

7. He doesn't know how to place bets
Some people manage to make good money on bets in various games, although the majority of people usually lose. And although Stephen Hawking is not a regular at the casino and not a fan of sports betting on the winning of one or another team, once he also made a bet - and lost. It was a bet on black holes, the meaning of which few are able to understand, so we will not even try. In short, he argued with his friend Kip Thorne, an astronomer and physicist, about the nature of the Cygnus X-1 object and its radiation. Hawking claimed it was a black hole, but Kip Thorne said it was not. They argued over the subscription of the magazine. If Hawking wins, he gets a four-year subscription to the satirical magazine Private Eye; if Thorne wins, then Hawking buys him a year's subscription to the erotic magazine Penthouse. It was a long-term bet, but Hawking eventually admitted defeat and handed Thorn a Penthouse subscription.

6. Hawking held the position once held by Isaac Newton
Newton is rightfully called the father of physics and the greatest scientist of his time, who made a huge contribution to science. It's amazing how Newton and other scientists managed to make such progress despite limited opportunities and the technology of that era. Sir Isaac Newton held an honorary position as Lucas Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge. He was the second person to be selected for this position. Stephen Hawking also held this post, which he took over at age 67. People who, like Hawking, have received this honor are all, no doubt, exceptional.

5. Pope John Paul II was not enthusiastic about Hawking's work
Unlike Sir Isaac Newton, who believed in God and studied theology, Hawking is an atheist and supporter of the Big Bang theory, contrary to religious beliefs. At a cosmological conference at the Vatican in 1981, Hawking and Pope John Paul II had a brief conversation during which the Pope expressed his disapproval of Hawking's approach to the question of the beginning of the universe. John Paul II had nothing against scientific research and space exploration, but he did not like the fact that cosmologists were raising questions about how, in fact, it all began. According to Hawking, the Pope said that there is no need to go deep into the Big Bang, because it is "the moment of creation," and therefore it is a matter of God.

4. Television loves him
We know little about the modern luminaries of theoretical physics, because they do not appear on television, and only a few have the pleasure of learning from them. Stephen Hawking is not only a famous scientist, but also a media personality: he often appears in various TV shows - mostly scientific in nature - and even films. He has appeared several times on shows such as The Simpsons, Star Trek and The Big Bang Theory. And more than once he starred in commercials.

3. He advocates for voluntary withdrawal from life
The question of whether it is right to let terminally ill patients decide for themselves whether to live or die is a very difficult one. Some believe that this is akin to murder and is immoral, while others believe that allowing people to suffer without the possibility of healing is even more immoral. Stephen Hawking knows from his own experience what suffering and what an incurable disease is, so he has the right to express his opinion.

2. He was married twice
Stephen Hawking's first wife in 1965 was Jane Hawking, whom his sister introduced him to. They fell in love and decided to get married - despite the fact that just then the doctors told Hawking that he had two and a half years to live. According to Hawking, Jane gave him a reason to live. They lived a long life together, raised three children. But the deteriorating condition of Stephen every year inevitably led them to a break at some point. Jane began to have romantic feelings for another man, and in 1995 the Hawkings divorced. After a while, Stephen married Elaine Mason, who was his nurse. This marriage broke up in 2006 and Hawking does not like to remember him.

1. He believes in the possibility of the existence of aliens
While we are accustomed to thinking aliens are a myth, Stephen Hawking argues that there is a non-zero likelihood of a developed alien civilization somewhere in the universe. He also expresses concern that one day these advanced aliens will eventually arrive on Earth and possibly erase human race from her face. In addition, given the approximate size of the known part of the Universe, the chances of the existence of extraterrestrial life are really high - it does not matter if it is more developed or less developed. After all, the Earth is not even a drop in the ocean, but much, much less when compared with the Universe.

His mind, overcoming time and space, explores the strange beauty of gaping black holes, but lately the most famous scientist in the world is occupied with a more earthly problem.

Former Cambridge University mathematics professor Stephen Hawking must ponder how to spend the $ 3 million (£ 1.8 million) deposited into his bank account after winning the largest science prize ever established.

The renowned physicist, who did not celebrate his 70th birthday in January due to illness, received a special prize for "Special Achievements in Fundamental Physics", including for the discovery scientific fact that black holes emit radiation, for their enormous contributions to quantum gravity and to some aspects of the study of young universes.

This award is one of several established by the Russian internet tycoon Yuri Milner, who left his scientific work in physics in Russian Academy sciences and earned a billion dollars on investments in social networks and other companies such as Twitter, Facebook and Groupon.

The award winners are selected by an independent panel of physicists, such as the world's leading string theory researcher Edward Witten and Alan Guth, who advanced the theory of cosmic inflation. Usually young scientists are awarded, who are younger than those who receive Nobel prize, insofar as experimental evidence theoretical work in this case are not needed.

In a letter to the Guardian, Professor Hawking said he was “delighted and honored” to receive this award. “No one in physics does research to win prizes. We are talking here about the joy of discovering something new, which no one knew before. Nevertheless, such awards play important role public recognition of achievements in the field of physics. They increase the authority of physics and interest in it, ”he wrote.

“While almost every theoretical physicist would agree with my prediction that a black hole is hot as a hot body, it is very difficult to verify experimentally, because the temperature of a macroscopic black hole is so low,” added Hawking.

This physicist, who gained worldwide fame thanks to the book published in 1988 “ Short story time ", and participated in the filming of the animated series" The Simpsons "and the film" Star Trek”Until he decided how he would spend the wealth that had unexpectedly fallen on him. “I’ll help my daughter, whose son is autistic, and maybe buy a dacha - however, I don’t have much time to rest, because I like doing theoretical physics,” the scientist wrote.

Selection committee member Nima Arkani-Hamed said, “What about Hawking? This is a real giant of modern physics. He is doing a tremendous, colossal job. "

Milner, 51, graduated from the Physics Department of Moscow State University with a degree in theoretical physics, but turned down his doctorate at the Russian Academy of Sciences to study and an MBA from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. But Milner is still a science enthusiast, and he instituted the award in recognition of the greatest minds in fundamental physics to help them make important new discoveries in the future.

Hawking, 70, isn't the only winner. The second prize, $ 3 million, was shared by scientists at the Large Hadron Collider who discovered what looks like the Higgs boson. The award went to Project Leader Lyn Evans and the six former and current leaders of the two Atlas and CMS research teams who discovered the particle.

“I got a call and told me I had received a million dollar prize,” Evans told the Guardian. - I was stunned. The first thing I did was sit down. It's great for us, and the award somehow makes up for the shortcomings of the Nobel Prize, which can only be awarded to no more than three people. " Each of the research groups will receive a million dollars.

Evans is still at a loss and does not know what to spend the money on. Apart from buying an iPad, nothing else comes to his mind. “I don’t need a lot of money. What I will definitely not do is not drive around CERN in a Ferrari. It will harm my image, ”he said.

On July 4, Fabiola Gianotti, head of the Atlas group, and CMS chief Joe Incandela described the Higgs boson during a presentation at CERN, a particle physics laboratory near Geneva. Gianotti says: "This award is not for me, it is an award for collaboration, a recognition of the hard experimental work that everyone has been doing over the years." With her $ 500,000, she intends to establish a fund to support young physicists from the Atlas group who need money. According to Inandela, the award recognizes the "tremendous effort" of scientists at the Large Hadron Collider. “I want to find a way to properly and profitably use the prize for the benefit of those who made this all possible,” he added.

What is now called the Higgs boson was first described in 1964 by the Edinburgh physicist Peter Higgs, who created a theory that substantiates how elementary particles gain mass. Neither he nor four other living theoreticians who published similar works that year will receive the award, since their work belongs to the distant past. “The intention behind the award is to recognize recent work,” said Arkani-Hamed.

In addition to the winners of special prizes - Hawking and researchers from CERN, the committee selected several more physicists, adding them to the list of potential winners of the Fundamental Physics Prize, the amount of which is $ 3 million. The winners will be announced next March at CERN. Their work is very diverse, from the discovery of exotic materials called topological insulators, to important contributions to string theory, which describes nature in terms such as strings, loops, and surfaces that exist in a higher dimension.

Three more physicists under the age of 35 will receive $ 100,000 awards for important discoveries in other areas of physics.

The condition for the award is that the laureates are required to give a public lecture on their field at least once a year. scientific activities... The lectures they give will be recorded and posted on the Foundation's website in support of the awards.