Hawking's New Theory example essay topic

April 2005 Physics Honors Stephen Hawking Stephen Hawking was born on January 8, 1942. He is the first child of Frank and Isabel Hawking. During the second World War, Isabel was sent from her husband's home in Highgate, to Oxford. This was considered a much safer place to have children during the war.

Soon after his birth, his family moved back in together in their north London home. Hawking began his schooling here at Hertfordshire School. Hawking moved only once during his childhood, to Saint Albans, a small town about 20 miles away from North London. His father, Frank, moved to the Institute for Medical Research in 1950. The rest of the family moved to St. Albans to make it easier to get to Mill Hill, where the Institute was located.

When the family moved, Hawking began attending St. Albans High School for Girls. The school accepted boys that were ten years old or younger. When he became too old to go this school, he switched to St. Albans School. At the age of 11, his father wanted him to go to Westminster Public School.

To go there, he had to take the scholarship exam. On the day of the exam, Hawking was too ill to take the exam so he stayed at St. Albans School. Hawking said that "I got an education there that was as good as, if not better than, that I would have received at Westminster". As Hawking got older, he wanted to study mathematics. He had been inspired by his math teacher, but his father disagreed with his choice.

His father persuaded him to switch his main course of study to Physics. Hawking's father had gone to University College, Oxford and wanted Hawking to go there too. At the time, math was not a course there, and Hawking's father used that as part of his argument in persuading Hawking not to take mathematics. In March 1959, Hawking took an exam to get into University College in Oxford. He felt that he had not done well on the test, but was still awarded a scholarship to go.

Once he got in, his goal was to study Natural Sciences and ended up specializing in Physics. He was awarded a first class degree in 1962. He barely made the first class degree and said it was made hard for him because "The prevailing attitude at Oxford at that was very anti-Work. You were supposed to brilliant without effort, or accept your limitations and get a fourth class degree. To work hard to get a better class of degree was regarded as the mark of a grey man - the worst epithet in the Oxford vocabulary". After graduating from Oxford, Hawking went to Cambridge and studied general relativity and Cosmology.

This was a difficult subject, especially for a person who had very little education in mathematics. Cosmology was generally related to theories on how the universe started and black holes. There had been no one working in those areas at Oxford at that time which was the reason for his switch in schools. Hawking had hoped to have Fred Hoyle as a supervisor, but got Denis Sci ama instead. There, he gained his PhD at Trinity Hall in 1966 and became a Research Fellow. He eventually became a Professorial Fellow at Gon ville and Caius College.

At the age of twenty-one, Hawking was diagnosed with the first symptoms of Motor Neuron Disease, also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease. After his first term at Cambridge, his mother persuaded him to see a doctor at the end of 1962 because he had been acting very clumsy lately. In 1963, he went to the hospital and was diagnosed with this disease after two weeks of various tests. He deteriorated quickly after this. Doctors had estimated that Hawking only had a few years left to live, but he defied their opinions and is still alive today.

He is nearly fully paralyzed and uses a wheelchair with a computer system called "Clicker" He operates this by selecting word from the screen or by head and eye movements. Starting in 1965, Hawking began doing most of his research on singularities in the general relativity theory with Roger Penrose. He made up new math techniques to better study Cosmology. This research lasted until about 1970 when Hawking began to apply these new ideas to the study of black holes. In 1970, he came to an amazing conclusion. He showed that black holes can give off radiation by using general relativity and quantum theory.

Quantum Theory is a theory of matter and energy that is based on the idea of quanta, which is the singular form of the word quantum which is an individual quantity of energy corresponding to that involved in the absorption or emission of energy or light by an atom or other particle (definitions from the dictionary). In 1971, Hawking began researching the creation of the universe. He used this research to come to yet another amazing conclusion. He predicted that shortly after the Big Bang occurred, a series of mini black holes was formed.

These black holes would have a large gravitational pull. They would be only about the size of a proton but could weigh an up 1,000,000,000 (one billion) tons. Hawking left the Institute of Astronomy in 1973. He went to the Department of Applied of Mathematics and Theoretical Physics back at Cambridge. In 1974, he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society. He was one of the youngest fellows there.

The Royal Society is claimed to be the "oldest learned society" still in existence. It was founded in 1660 and serves as the national society of sciences in the United Kingdoms. In 1975, Hawking got the Eddington Medal, which is awarded once every two years for achievements in theoretical astrophysics by the Royal Astronomical Society. In 1977, Hawking became the Professor of Gravitational Physics at Cambridge. In 1979, he was appointed Luc asian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge, a position he continues to hold. This chair was founded in 1663 by money left in the will of Reverend Henry Lucas.

Lucas had been the Member of Parliament from the University, The second person to ever hold this position had been Sir Isaac Newton. Hawking made his No Boundary Proposal in 1981. He stated that the universe is finite in space / time although it has no physical boundaries. He worked on this theory with Jim Harte from santa Barbara. In 1983, he proved this theory mathematically. He was appointed CBE in 1984.

In 1985, Hawking suffered through a severe case of Bronchitis. He ended up having to have a tracheotomy. He lost most of his ability to communicate after this and had to get an electronic voice synthesizer. In 1988, Hawking released his first book, A Brief History of Time. In May 1995, it was still on the best seller's list after 237 consecutive weeks, setting a new record (the old record had been 184 weeks). This was recorded in Guinness Book of World Records (1998).

On April 6, 1995 it was published as a paperback and was th number one best seller within three days. There were also 40 different hardcover editions in the US, and 39 different hardback editions in th UK. He was also awarded the Wolf Prize in Physics in that year (1988). A year later in 1989, he was made a Companion of Honor. In 1990, Hawking got a divorce from his wife, Jane.

The couple had three children together and now have one grandchild. When they married, people asked Jane many times why she married a man with a three-year life expectancy. Hawking is once again happily married though. In 1995, he married Elaine Mason. In 1999, Hawking received the Julius Edgar Lilienfeld Prize of the American Physical Society. Hawking is also a member of the US National Academy of Sciences.

He has received a total of twelve honorary degrees. In July of 2004, Hawking held a press conference to tell everyone about his new black hole theory. This theory went against his long-held belief about black hole behavior. People used to believe that data that went into a black hole would go somewhere else. Hawking's new theory sated that all data that went into a black hole will eventually be transmitted back out in a garbled form. Hawking has been portrayed on many tv shows.

Cartoons he has been in include Dexter's Laboratory, Futurama, Dilbert, The Simpsons, Family Guy, and Pinky and the Brain. He also appeared in Star Trek: The Next Generation and on Late Night With Conan O'Brian doing a skit with Jim Carrey. One website has a Hawking-like synthesizer voice who raps about physics called "MC Hawking" He lent his voice to "Keep Talking" by Pink Floyd for Division Bell. He was even once featured in a satirical newspaper called The Onion. The newspaper ran an article that said Hawking's head was mounted on top of a super robotic cyborg body, which also had laser guided missiles and a jet pack. Hawking jokingly sent them a letter cursing them for exposing his evil plot to take over the world.

Hawking is also a supporter of several major causes. He has agreed to take part in a protest against the war in Iraq. He appeared on a broadcast for the Labour Party. He is an active supporter of Children's Charity.

Overall, Hawking is a great man. He is an inspiration and genius. He is a great man in his family, in science, and in the community.