summary of the chapter "Quest for a theory of Everything"
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The chapter is about Stephen Hawking, renowned theoretical physicist and mathematician who struggled with the disease ALS for almost three quarters of his life. He was born on 8 January 1942 in England. He had his schooling at St Alban’s. At the age of 17, he went to University College, Oxford to study physics. He applied for a PhD in theoretical physics at Cambridge and was accepted. During his final year of graduation he began showing signs of ALS which aggravated after he joined Cambridge. Once his disease was diagnosed, he was told that he had only two years left to live. However the progression of his disease slowed and he understood that he had more time than what the doctors predicted. Soon he met Jane Wilde who took an instant liking to him.
Hawking got a research fellowship at Cambridge University and married Jane soon after. There, he gained reputation for his intelligence and people started calling him ‘another Einstein’. In 1980, he decided to write a book on the origin of Universe . In 1984, his windpipe was removed as a result of pneumonia and he lost his voice forever. He used a computer programme known as Equaliser to select words from a screen in order to communicate. With the help of his student Brian Whitt, he published A Brief History of Time. The book made him popular all over the world.
It was Hawking’s physical condition that grabbed the attention of the world. But he was undoubtedly the finest physicist of his generation. His talents far exceeded his disabilities and he achieved far more than anyone expected him to. He spent a lot of time on a wheelchair and could hardly move any part of his body except a few facial muscles. This did not prevent him from publishing some of the most groundbreaking papers on theoretical physics.