Stephen Hawking - Master of the WheelchairStephen William Hawking, 69
year-old English theoretical physicist and cosmologist whose scientific
books and public appearances have made him an academic celebrity.
(Cosmology - the astrophysical study of the structure and constituent
dynamics of the universe.) In addition, he received the 2009 award of the
Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the United
States. He was the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of
Cambridge for thirty years and is now Director of Research at the Centre
for Theoretical Cosmology in the Department of Applied Mathematics and
Theoretical Physics at the University of Cambridge in the U.K. He is
known for his contributions to the fields of cosmology and quantum
gravity, especially in the context of black holes. He has also achieved
success with works of popular science in which he discusses his own
theories and cosmology, in general. These include the runaway best
seller, A Brief History of Time, which stayed on the British Sunday Times
bestsellers-list for a record-breaking 237 weeks. All this in spite of
possessing a motor neuron-disease that is related to Amyotrophic-Lateral-
Sclerosis (ALS – “Lou Gehrig’s disease”), a condition that has progressed
over the years and has left him almost completely paralyzed.Hawking was
always interested in science. Inspired by his mathematics teacher, he
originally wanted to study the subject at the university. However, his
father wanted him to apply to the University College, Oxford, where his
father had attended. As University College did not have a mathematics-
fellow at that time, it would not accept applications from students who
wished to study that discipline. He, therefore, studied natural sciences,
in which he won a scholarship, instead. Once at University College,
Hawking specialized in physics. His interests during this time were in
thermodynamics, relativity and quantum mechanics. Almost as soon as he
arrived at Cambridge, he started developing symptoms of ALS would cost
him almost all neuromuscular control. During his first two years at
Cambridge, he did not distinguish himself, but after the disease had
stabilized and with the help of his doctoral tutor, he returned to
working on his Ph.D. His achievements were made despite the increasing
paralysis caused by the ALS. By 1974, he was unable to feed himself or
get out of bed. His speech became slurred so that he could be understood
only by people who knew him well. In 1985, he caught pneumonia and had to
have a tracheotomy, which made him unable to speak at all. A Cambridge
scientist built a device that enables Hawking to write onto a computer
with small movements of his body and a voice- synthesizer speaks what he
has typed.Billionaire Richard Branson pledged to pay all expenses for a
space-trip in a rocket costing an estimated $ 375,000 during which time
he experienced weightlessness some eight times that took place on 26
April 2007. He became the first quadriplegic to float in zero-gravity
that was the first time in forty years that he moved freely, without his
wheelchair. Stephen Hawking is severely-disabled. His illness is markedly
different from typical-ALS in that his form of the disease would make for
the most protracted case ever documented. A survival rate of more than
ten years after diagnosis is extremely rare for ALS. The longest
documented-durations are thirty-two and thirty-nine years and these cases
were termed benign because of the lack of the typical progressive course.
1 / 2When he was young, he enjoyed riding horses and playing with other
children. At Oxford, he was the coxswain on a rowing team, which, he
stated, helped relieve his immense boredom at the university. Symptoms of
the disorder first appeared while he was enrolled at University of
Cambridge. He lost his balance and fell down a flight of stairs, hitting
his head. Worried that he would lose his genius, he took the Mensa test
to verify that his intellectual abilities were intact. The diagnosis of
motor-neuron disease came when he was 21 and doctors said he would not
survive more than two or three years. He gradually lost the use of his
arms, legs and voice. As of 2009, he has been almost completely
paralyzed.During a visit to CERN in Geneva (European Organization for
Nuclear Research) in 1985, he contracted pneumonia, which, in his
condition, was life-threatening as it further restricted his already
limited respiratory capacity. He had an emergency tracheotomy and as a
result, lost what remained of his ability to speak. He has since used an
“electronic-voice-synthesizer” to communicate. The “DECtalk-DTC01” voice-
synthesizer he uses, which has an American/English accent, is no longer
being produced. Asked why he has still kept it after so many years,
Hawking mentioned that he has not heard a voice he likes better and that
he identifies with it. He is looking for a replacement unit since the one
being used is obsolete, besides being both large and, at the same time,
fragile, by current standards. In his many media appearances, he appears
to speak fluently through his synthesizer but in reality, it is a
tedious, drawn-out process. His setup uses a “predictive-text-entry-
system” that requires only the first few characters to “auto-complete”
the word but as he is only able to use his cheek for “data-entry”,
constructing complete sentences takes time. His speeches are prepared in
advance but having a live conversation with him provides insight as to
the complexity and work involved. During a specific conference talk, it
took him seven minutes to answer a question.He describes himself as lucky
despite his disease. Its slow progression has allowed him time to make
influential discoveries and has not hindered him from having, in his own
words, "a very attractive family." When his wife, Jane, was asked why she
decided to marry a man with a three-year life expectancy, she responded,
"Those were the days of atomic gloom-and-doom so we all had rather a
short-life-expectancy." His belief that the lay person should have access
to his work led him to write a series of popular science books, in
addition to his academic work. The first of these, A Brief History of
Time, was published on 1 April 1988 by Hawking, his family and friends,
and some leading physicists. It was a best-seller, surprisingly, and was
followed by The Universe in a Nutshell (2001). Both books have remained
highly popular all over the world. He and his daughter, Lucy Hawking,
have recently published a children's book focusing on science that has
been described to be "like Harry Potter but without the magic." The book
is George's Secret Key to the Universe and includes information on the
Hawking radiation theory.Currently, Stephen Hawking is under-going
experiments with “thought-based communication systems” using a specially-
designed helmet to process brain-waves by conversion of these “waves”
into physical actions such as voice, arm-movements, head-adjustments,
leg-movements and possible wheelchair- movements. These experiments are
ideal for patients with Lou Gehrig's disease. As the disease progresses,
patients have fully functional brains but slowly lose control over their
muscles. “Synthetic- telepathy” could be a way for these patients to
communicate in the future based on these experiments being conducted both
here and abroad. 2 / 2
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