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Even if you do not lead a special department for the development of advanced theories in physics, you must have heard about the famous physicist Stephen Hawking . Most of all, he is known, of course, because, firstly, he has a brilliant mind and a paralyzed body, secondly, he promotes complex science, and thirdly, the bestseller “ A Brief History of Time ”. Previously, we have already written more about whether Hawking is a robot or a human being, now let's go through a dozen of the most interesting facts about famous physics.
Many people find it surprising that despite writing great works, Hawking has not yet received the Nobel Prize. Others - that Hawking was born on January 8, 1942, and on this day the 300th anniversary of the death of Galileo fell. But this is a warm-up, there are things and more interesting.
Hawking was bad at school
Today we know that Hawking has a brilliant mind and is working on theories that it is very difficult for an ordinary person to understand. Therefore, you may be surprised by the fact that Hawking was a slacker at school.
When he was 9 years old, his grades were among the worst in the class. A little pushing, Hawking raised points to medium, but not higher.
However, from early childhood, he was interested in how everything works. Disassembled the clock and radio. However, according to Hawking himself, it was impossible to collect them back.
Despite the bad grades, peers and teachers guessed that among them a genius was growing up, as evidenced by Hawking's nickname, which he was given at school - Einstein. Due to low grades at school, another problem appeared: his father wanted to send Hawking to Oxford, but there was no money without a scholarship. Fortunately, when it came to scholarship exams, Stephen received the highest score in physics.
Hawking detested biology
Stephen Hawking had sympathy for mathematics from an early age and wanted to know it perfectly. But his father Frank had a different point of view. He wanted to see Steven as a medic.
With all interest in science, Stephen did not care about biology. He said that she was "too inaccurate, too descriptive." And he would rather have devoted his mind to clearer and more verified ideas.
However, there was no mathematics department at Oxford. A compromise was found as follows: Hawking enters physics at Oxford.
But even as a physicist, he focused on major issues. When he faced the choice between elementary particles and the study of their behavior and cosmology, Hawking chose to study the universe. Cosmology was hardly recognized as a full-fledged science, but this did not prevent the young genius from choosing this path. Elementary particle physics, as Hawking said, “looked like a botany. There are particles, but there is no theory. ”
Was in the Oxford rowing team
Biographer Christine Larsen wrote that in the first year of her studies at Oxford, Hawking kept herself isolated and was unhappy. But that all changed when he joined the rowing team.
Long before Hawking struck a disease that almost completely paralyzed him, it was difficult for a scientist to be called an athlete. But the team of rowers needed small people for the role of the helmsmen, who did not row, but controlled the steering and pace.
And since rowing was important and popular for the Oxfords, the role that fell to Hawking made it popular. One member of the rowing team called him an "adventure type."
However, being involved in rowing training six days a week, Hawking began to "mow" his studies. "Cut serious corners" and use "creative analysis for laboratory work."
Doctors thought that at the age of 21 Hawking will stretch only a couple of years.
As a graduate student, Stephen Hawking began to experience symptoms of fatigue and awkwardness. The family got worried, and once during the Christmas holidays she insisted that he consult a doctor.
Before meeting with the doctor, Hawking celebrated the New Year and met his future wife, Jane Wilde. According to her memories, in Hawking she was attracted by "a sense of humor and an independent personality."
A week later, he was struck for 21 years, and a little later he went to the hospital for a two-week examination. There he was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, better known as Lou Gehrig's disease. This is a neurological disease, as a result of which the patient gradually loses muscle control. Doctors said that only a few years left to live.
Hawking recalls that he was shocked and wondered why this happened to him. But having met a boy dying of leukemia in the hospital, he realized that things could be worse.
Hawking was filled with optimism and began dating Jane. Soon they came together, and according to Hawking, he had "for the sake of which to live."
Participated in the creation of the theory of the infinite universe.
One of the main achievements of Hawking (which he shared with Jim Hartl) was the derivation of the theory that the universe has no boundaries in 1983.
In 1983, trying to understand the nature and form of the Universe, Hawking and Hartley, using the concepts of quantum mechanics and Einstein's general theory of relativity, showed that the Universe has content but no boundaries.
To visualize this, people need to represent the Universe as the surface of the Earth. Being on a sphere, we can go in any direction and never reach a corner, edge or boundary, where we can confidently say: “Everything. The end". However, the fundamental difference is that the surface of the Earth is two-dimensional (more precisely, its surface), and the Universe has four dimensions.
Hawking explains that spacetime is similar to the latitude lines of the globe. Starting from the North Pole (started the Universe) and following the south, the circle increases to the equator, and then decreases. This means that the Universe is finite in space-time and collapses once - but not earlier than in 20 billion years. Does this mean that time itself will go in the opposite direction? Hawking raised this question, but decided that he did not, because there is no reason to believe that the principle of entropy, that is, the tendency of ordered energy to turn into chaotic, will change in the opposite direction.
Lost bet on black holes
In 2004, the brilliant Hawking admitted that he was wrong and lost the bet, which he concluded in 1997 with a familiar scientist. To understand the essence of the bet, let's go back to what black holes are.
The stars are huge. Their large mass generates powerful gravity (read more about the relationship between mass and gravity). As the nuclear fuel inside the star burns, the energy that counteracts gravity comes out. But when a star "burns", gravity becomes so powerful that the star collapses, collapses into itself, giving rise to a black hole.
Gravity is so powerful that even light cannot leave the limits of a black hole. However, in 1975, Hawking stated that black holes are not black. On the contrary, they radiate energy. In this case, the data disappear into the black hole, which eventually evaporates. The problem is that this idea, according to which information disappears in a black hole, contradicts quantum mechanics and creates what Hawking called the “information paradox”.
American theoretical physicist John Preskill did not agree with the conclusion that information is lost in a black hole. In 1997, he made a bet with Hawking, arguing that the information simply can not leave it, which does not contradict the laws of quantum mechanics.
Hawking, as a good athlete, admitted that he was wrong - in 2004. At a scientific conference, the scientist said that since black holes have more than one “topology”, and when one contains information that is freed from all topologies, it is not lost.
Received many awards and differences
During his long career in physics, Hawking scored an impressive series of awards and differences. Hardly they will not be replenished with new ones, but let's go over what is already there.
In 1974, he was accepted into the Royal Society (Royal Academy of Sciences in Great Britain, founded in 1660), and a year later, Pope Paul VI awarded him and Roger Penrose the gold medal of science named after Pius XI. Stephen Hawking also received the Albert Einstein Award and the Hughes Medal from the Royal Society.
Hawking has established himself so well in the scientific community that in 1979 he was appointed a professor of mathematics at the University of Cambridge in England - and this position he will hold for the next 30 years. This position was once held by Sir Isaac Newton.
In 1980 he was dedicated to the Commanders of the British Empire, which comes second in honor after knighthood. He also became an Honorary member of a society in which there are no more than 65 members at the same time who distinguished themselves in front of the nation.
In 2009, Hawking received the highest civilian award in the United States - the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Despite the fact that Hawking was awarded at least 12 honorary degrees, the Nobel Prize eludes him.
Writes books for children
One of the least expected facts about the life of Stephen Hawking is that he is a childish author. In 2007, Stephen and his daughter Lucy Hawking together wrote George's Secret Key to the Universe.
This is a fantastic story about the boy George, who goes against the rejection of technology by their parents. The boy begins to make friends with a physicist neighbor who has the most powerful computer in the world and can open portals to outer space.
Of course, most of the book is devoted to the explanation of heavy scientific concepts, for example, black holes and the origin of life, in simple children's language. Hence the fame of Hawking, a popularizer who has always sought to explain his writings in accessible language.
The second part of the book was published in 2009 under the title “George's Treasure Hunt for Treasure”.
Believes in alien life
Given Hawking's knowledge of cosmology, people are extremely interested in why a great scientist thinks that we are not alone in the Universe. On the 50th anniversary of NASA in 2008, Hawking was given the floor, and he shared his thoughts on this matter.
The cosmologist noted that given the size of the Universe, the existence of even a primitive, and maybe intelligent life is quite acceptable.
"Primitive life is very common," said Hawking. - “Reasonable is a rarity.”
Of course, Hawking did not go without sarcasm: "Someone can say that life originated on Earth." For all this, he warned that alien life may well have arisen not on the basis of DNA, and we may not be immune to alien diseases.
Hawking believes that aliens can use the resources of their own planet and "become nomads who capture and colonize all the planets they can reach." Or they can create a system of mirrors, focus the energy of the sun at one point and create a wormhole for traveling in space-time.
Visited weightlessness to save humanity
In 2007, when Hawking was 65 years old, he realized his lifelong dream. He traveled in zero gravity and swam in a special chair, thanks to the company Zero Gravity. The corporation provides a service in which people flying on a plane soaring and descending can experience a state of weightlessness for about 25 seconds for several rounds.
Hawking, who was freed from a wheelchair for the first time in decades, could even perform a gymnastic somersault. But the most interesting thing in all this is not what he could do, but why. When he was asked why he wanted this flight, he, of course, noted his desire to be in space. But the reasons are much deeper.
In connection with the possibility of global warming or nuclear war, as noted by Hawking, the future of the human race can pass in a long flight into outer space. Hawking supports private space research (such as the work of Elon Musk and SpaceX ) in the hope that space tourism will soon become public domain. And we can travel to other planets to survive. By the way, not so long ago the smallest exoplanet was discovered. Perhaps there will ever be human cities on it.
Source: howstaffworks.com
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