STEPHEN HAWKING

1- Stephen William Hawking is one of the most famous living scientists. His computer-simulated voice is familiar on many television science programmes.

2- Stephen Hawking (b.1942) is a British physicist who is famous for his ideas on space and time. Hawking was born in Oxford, England and studied at Cambridge University, where he is now a professor.

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3- Hawking suffers from the paralyzing nerve disease called AMYOTROPHIC LATERAL SCLEROSIS. He cannot move any more than a few hand and face muscles, but he gets around very well in an electric wheelchair.

4- Hawking cannot speak, but he communicates effectively with a computer-simulated voice.

5- Hawking’s book A Brief History of Time (1988) outlines his ideas on space, time and the history of the Universe since the Big Bang. It was one of the best-selling science books of the 20th century.

6- Einstein thought of and Hawking developed the idea of black holes. They are collapsed objects, such as stars, that have become invisible.

7- Hawking’s contributions to the study of gravity are considered to be the most important since Einstein’s.

8- More than anyone else, Hawking has developed the idea of black holes — points in space where gravity becomes so extreme that it even sucks in light.

9- Hawking developed the idea of a singularity, which is an incredibly small point in a black hole where all physical laws break down.

10- Hawking’s work provides a strong theoretical base for the idea that the Universe began with a Big Bang, starting with a singularity and exploding outwards.