Stephen Hawking was a theoretical physicist and cosmologist known for his research of black holes, computer-generated voice, and cameo appearances in television and film, where he was often depicted in a wheelchair near a board full of equations.
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Diagnosed with ALS at 21 and told he had two years to live, Stephen Hawking went on to change our understanding of black holes and the universe, living 55 more years and defying every expectation.
His theoretical work—especially on black holes emitting radiation, now known as Hawking radiation—challenged long-held ideas. He also brought complex physics to the public through bestselling books like "A Brief History of Time."
In 2009, Hawking hosted a reception but only sent out invitations afterward, hoping that time travelers from the future would attend and prove time travel possible. He later joked it was "experimental evidence" that time travel doesn’t exist.
Hawking radiation may not have been discovered without Jacob Bekenstein first convincing Stephen Hawking that black holes follow the laws of thermodynamics. The graduate student showed that black holes could shrink, setting the stage for Hawking’s most significant contribution.
Lucy Hawking details what it was like to be the daughter of the famed cosmologist and what his life looked like from her eyes. Among the anecdotes was Stephen's enjoyment of being on "The Simpsons" because production gave him a wheelchair with helicopter blades.
Before gaining fame as a physicist, Hawking was a coxswain at Oxford, where the sport helped him find his social footing and develop leadership skills, even as his motor neuron disease began to emerge.
In this comedic interview with John Oliver, Stephen Hawking discusses his groundbreaking work in theoretical physics, his views on AI, and Oliver's chances of dating Charlize Theron in the multiverse—all with his trademark voice and humorous tone.
When diagnosed with ALS, Stephen Hawking was given two years to live. However, he survived with the progressive neurodegenerative disease for over 50 years, highlighting the disease's variability and complexity.
Hawking radiation is Stephen Hawking's theoretical prediction that black holes emit radiation and eventually evaporate. Applied to known black holes, their radiation is so weak that it would take vastly longer than the current age of the universe for them to disappear.
Stephen Hawking's PhD thesis mathematically showed that singularities—points of no volume and infinite density—are an expected feature of nature. It laid the theoretical groundwork for a model of the universe where everything originates from a single point.
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