Stephen
Hawking
Occupation: Scientist and
astrophysicist
Born: January 8, 1942 in
Oxford, United Kingdom
Died: March 14, 2018 in
Cambridge, United Kingdom
Best known for: Hawking
radiation and the book A Brief
History of Time
Early Life
Stephen Hawking was born in
Oxford, England on January 8,
1942. He grew up in a highly
educated family. Both of his
parents had attended Oxford
University and his father, Frank,
was a medical researcher.
Stephen enjoyed math and
science in school where he
earned the nickname "Einstein."
He wanted to study math at
university but Oxford didn't have
a math degree at the time so he
chose physics and chemistry
instead. Stephen found college
coursework to be very easy. He
enjoyed being a member of the
school's boat club as well as
classical music. After graduation,
he went to Cambridge to study
for his PhD.
Diagnosed with ALS
While Hawking was working on
his PhD at Cambridge
University, he began to have
health issues. His speech
became slurred and he became
very clumsy, often dropping
items or falling for no reason.
After going through a series of
tests, doctors discovered that
Hawking had a disease called
ALS (also called Lou Gehrig's
disease). At the time, the doctors
said he only had a few years to
live.
Hawking meeting President
Obama by Pete Souza
Overcoming ALS
Although Hawking was initially
depressed over his diagnosis, he
decided that there were things
he wanted to accomplish with his
life. He began to study and work
harder than ever before. He
wanted to earn his PhD before
he died. Around the same time,
he met and fell in love with a girl
named Jane Wilde. Between his
work and Jane, Hawking had a
reason to live.
Despite the initial grim diagnosis
from his doctors, Hawking lived
a full and productive life with the
help of science and modern
medicine. Although he was
confined to a wheelchair and
could not talk for much of his life,
he was able to communicate
using a touch pad computer and
a voice synthesizer.
Black Holes and Hawking
Radiation
Stephen spent much of his
academic work researching
black holes and space-
time theories. He wrote many
important papers on the subject
and became a noted expert on
relativity and black holes.
Perhaps his most famous theory
was one that demonstrated that
black holes emit some radiation.
Prior to this it was thought that
black holes could not get smaller
because nothing could escape
their enormous gravity. This
radiation from black holes has
become known as Hawking
Radiation.
You can go here to learn more
about black holes.
A Brief History of Time
Stephen also enjoyed writing
books. In 1988 he published A
Brief History in Time. This book
covered modern subjects on
cosmology such as the big bang
and black holes in terms that
could be understood by the
average reader. The book
became very popular selling
millions of copies and remaining
on the London Sunday Times
best-seller list for four years. He
has since written many more
books including A Briefer History
in Time, On the Shoulders of
Giants, and The Universe in a
Nutshell.
Hawking during a zero gravity
test flight
Photo by Jim Campbell
Interesting Facts about
Stephen Hawking
He was born on the 300th
anniversary of the death of
the famous scientist Galileo.
He has been married twice
and has three children.
Stephen has been on several
TV shows including The
Simpsons and the Big Bang
Theory.
The book A Brief History of
Time only has one equation,
Einstein's famous E = mc2.
Hawking has co-written
several children's books with
his daughter Lucy
including George's Cosmic
Treasure Hunt and George
and the Big Bang.
He received the Presidential
Medal of Freedom in 2009.
He hoped to travel to space
one day and trained with
NASA on their zero gravity
aircraft
A
KEY
TO
SUCCES
The key to success is making
yourself as useful as possible to
others.
That’s it. Making yourself as
useful as possible to others.
If you focus on applying this,
others will realize the value
they get from you and they will
attract more people to come to
you. These new people will
also realize the value they get
from you and they will attract
even more people to come to
you. The virtuous cycle begins
and you are now on your way
to success.
With this principle in mind, you
should aim at increasing your
usefulness to others. How do
you do that? Here are some
ideas:
1. Be observant of needs
To be useful to others, you
should always be aware of
even the slightest clues of
needs. The more sensitive
you are to the needs of
others, the more
appreciative people will
eventually become. The best
scenario is being able to
anticipate a need before the
other people are even aware
of it.
2. Find solutions to the
needs
Now that you are aware of
needs, the next step is
finding solutions to them.
The solutions you offer
should be as useful as
possible. To be able to do so,
there is no other way but to
continuously build your own
value. It is from the value
you have that you could give
value to others.
3. Be proactive to help
Do not wait for the other
person to ask for your help.
Be proactive. Give your help
even before they ask.
4. Be sincere
What matters is not only the
solution you offer, but also
the way you deliver it. Being
sincere means being glad to
help others without
expecting anything in return.
Make it your joy to give
something to others. People
can somehow distinguish
whether or not you are
sincere.
5. Go the extra mile
Doing the above four steps
is good, but add this one if
you can: give more than
expected. First, give what is
expected, and then add a
little more. If you do the
above four steps people will
be appreciative, but if you
add this one step they will
be impressed.
