Gloria Holmes
He was one of the most important scholars of our time.
Stephen Hawking (76), pop star in physics, bestsellers (“A Brief History of Time”, “The Universe in Brief”) and series favorites (including “The Simpsons”, “The Big Bang Theory”)).
On Saturday January 8, the British researcher (chair in Cambridge) will be 80 years old. On his birthday, a Google doodle is dedicated to the life of an astrophysicist and mathematician, whose pioneering theories, including about black holes in space, expanded the horizon of knowledge.
Hawking wears glasses and books with horny edges under his arm on his way to collegeImage: google
nicely Pixel Art Video (YouTube) presents important moments in the life of a genius. Most serious: Diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis at age 21. Motor neurone disease forced him to use a wheelchair from 1968 onwards. After contracting life-threatening pneumonia with a cleft of his trachea, he lost the ability to speak in 1985 – and his mind remained sharp.
Since then, he has used an audio computer to communicate, and his soft, squawk voice has become his trademark. Stephen Hawking can also be heard in the doodles video.
A paralyzed genius speeds through space in a rocket wheelchair and encounters black holesImage: google
“I’ve spent my life traveling through space in my head,” he says in the video of him visiting black holes in a rocket wheelchair. He continues, “Humans are very small in this universe. But we are all capable of very big things. You can do it.”
Idiot: After his flight into space, Stephen Hawking landed on a parachute in a flock of sheepImage: google
Stephen Hawking defied all odds. He married (even twice), had a family (three children) and lived with the terrible disease for 55 years – no ALS patient survived longer than him.
On March 14, 2018 – coincidentally on the day of the circle number Pi and the birthday of Albert Einstein – Hawking died in Cambridge. He is buried at Westminster Abbey in London. There he found his final resting place among two other great naturalists: Sir Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin.
