According to BBC and other British media reports, the renowned physicist Stephen Hawking has passed away at the age of 76.
Professor Hawking's children, Lucy, Robert, and Tim, said in a statement:
“We are deeply saddened that our beloved father passed away today.
He was a great scientist and an extraordinary man whose work and legacy will live on for many years.
His courage and persistence with his brilliance and humor inspired people across the world.
He once said, 'It would not be much of a universe if it wasn't home to the people you love.'
We will miss him forever.”
Childhood
Stephen William Hawking was born in Oxford, England, on January 8, 1942,
the same day as the 300th anniversary of Galileo's death. His father, Frank, was a tropical disease expert who graduated from the University of Oxford, and his mother, Isobel, graduated from Oxford in 1930, where she studied philosophy, politics, and economics.
In January 1942, Nazi German forces were bombing London almost every night. This forced the Hawking family to leave their home in Highgate and move to Oxford for refuge. They returned to London after Hawking was born. As a child, Hawking's academic performance was not outstanding, but he loved designing extremely complex toys. It is said that he once used discarded items to build a simple computer.
Achievements
At the age of 21, Hawking was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's disease), which left him paralyzed and unable to speak, with only three fingers on his hands capable of movement.
From 1979 to 2009, he served as the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics. His main research fields were cosmology and black holes. He proved the singularity theorems of general relativity and the black hole area theorem, proposed the theory of black hole evaporation and the no-boundary Hawking universe model, and took an important step in unifying the two fundamental theories of 20th-century physics—Einstein's theory of relativity and Planck's quantum mechanics. He received honors including CH (Companion of Honour), CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire), FRS (Fellow of the Royal Society), and FRSA (Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts).
Hawking's most famous research includes the theory of black hole evaporation and the no-boundary Hawking universe model. In 1973, he examined quantum effects near black holes and discovered that black holes emit radiation like celestial bodies. The temperature of this radiation is inversely proportional to the mass of the black hole, meaning the black hole would slowly shrink due to radiation while its temperature would rise, eventually ending in an explosion. The discovery of black hole radiation, or Hawking radiation, is of fundamental significance as it unifies general relativity, quantum field theory, and thermodynamics, representing quantum field theory in curved spacetime. After 1973, his research shifted to quantum gravity. Although a successful theory has not yet been achieved, some of its characteristics have been discovered.
After 1980, Hawking's interest turned to quantum cosmology, where he proposed the no-boundary condition to solve the problem of the universe's first cause. In July 2004, he admitted that his previous view on the “black hole paradox” was incorrect. Stephen William Hawking believed that his life's contribution was proving the inevitability of black holes and Big Bang singularities within the framework of classical physics, where black holes grow larger. However, within the framework of quantum physics, he pointed out that black holes shrink due to radiation, and the Big Bang singularity is constantly smoothed out by quantum effects, with the entire universe originating from this. While the details of theoretical physics may change over the next 20 years, the concepts are already quite complete.
In 1988, Hawking's popular science book, A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes, was published. Starting from the study of black holes, it explored the origin and destiny of the universe. The book has been translated into over 40 languages and has sold more than 10 million copies. However, due to its extremely profound content, it is jokingly referred to in the West as an “Unread Bestseller.” Some scholars have pointed out that the reason this book remains so popular is that it attempts to answer questions that were previously only accessible to theology: Does time have a beginning, and does space have boundaries?
In November 2017, Hawking predicted that by the year 2600, increased energy consumption could turn the Earth into a “fireball.”
On March 14, 2018, according to Sky News and other media outlets, Stephen Hawking passed away at the age of 76.
Science Above
Genius Ahead
In this vast universe
Human wisdom and exploration
Will forever create a great mark
Salute to the great physicist Hawking!
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