St. James C.E. Academy, Southam

Stephen Hawking  (8^thJanuary 1942 – 14^thMarch 2018)

Stephen Hawking, a world-renowned inspiration is most well-known for his brilliant theory about black holes. Despite a rare illness, he continued in physics until he was 76, producing scientific breakthroughs as well as teaching at a maths institution in Cambridge. His understanding of black holes has helped prove the big bang, the origin of the universe even more than before.

As a young boy, Stephen loved making model aeroplanes and playing board games. Although he was part of an eccentric family, who loved books, he was not that keen on learning; in many ways he was quite similar to Charles Darwin who thought of the theory of evolution.  Despite this fact, Frank Hawking, Stephen’s father, who was a medical researcher, decided that his mischievous son needed a scholarship to get the finest education. Disappointingly for his father, he was ill for the exam and therefore stayed at St. Albans school with his friends and his usual teachers. Some say this was actually better for Stephen as he had a good maths teacher who inspired him to become a mathematician.

As he came closer to going to college, he became more keen to get a degree in maths although his father still wanted him to study medicine. In the end, his hopes were spoilt because the degree he wanted at his chosen college wasn’t available. Instead, he studied chemistry and physics.

During his time in college, Stephen missed several lectures and didn’t enjoy the work he was set, probably largely because he had had his heart set on studying mathematics. As he realised his final exam for physics and chemistry was coming up, he had to work extremely hard to get a grade that would permit him to pursue his dreams. Although he came just short of his needed grade, they let him pass with a first, meaning that he could go on to study cosmology (the study of the universe) at Cambridge.

As he progressed through his first year, he became more clumsy and fell over more often. Eventually, he learned that these were symptoms of motor neurone disease. Over Christmas, he was diagnosed and told that he was expected to die within the next two years.

Through his later life Stephen Hawking became an internationally known professor despite his challenging disease; he also appeared in several television series and films such as Star Trek, The Simpsons and The Big Bang Theory. As well as this, he became an ambassador for charities supporting motor neurone disease and also for the companies who provided him with his speech synthesiser. Frustrated by the restrictions, he was depressed for many periods of his life. He did not leave his chair for 40 years until he experienced a simulated weightlessness chamber, ‘the vomit comet’ which enabled him to bob in the air as if he were in space: this was his dream.

His scientific theories will go down in history and he will be remembered as an inspiration to the whole world. People say his work was like Mozart never writing a single note down and that he had all the qualities needed in a human: resilience, perseverance, trust and hopefulness.

Stephen Hawking, (8^thJanuary 1942 – 14^thMarch 2018)

Stephen Hawking was born on 8^thJanuary 1942 in Oxford and died on 14^thMarch 2018 in his home in Cambridge.

Stephen Hawking was famous for discovering how the world was created: he explained how black holes compressed into a ball and exploded to make the universe. He was also famous for surviving with a fatal disease that meant he lived most of his life unable to move. He used a speech synthesiser and computer to help people understand what he was saying. For many people, he was an inspiration.

He had two younger sisters, Mary and Philippa, and an adopted brother, Edward. Luckily, for a physicist, Stephen was born and died on two famous scientists’ anniversaries: he was born on the 300^thanniversary of Galileo’s death and died on the 139^thanniversary of Einstein’s birth.

In school, Stephen had the nickname of Einstein but, as a young boy, he was not so successful at school. He much preferred playing with his friends, playing board games and making fireworks. Also, he enjoyed making model planes and boats. One of his favourite things to do was taking clocks apart but, funnily enough, he couldn’t put them back together again.

In 1959, he went to Oxford University and studied chemistry and physics. He passed his degree at 21. A few weeks after getting his degree, he was taken to hospital because he wasn’t looking himself. After having lots of tests done, he was told he had motor neurone disease; they said he was unlikely to live more than two years.

Surprisingly, he survived much more than two years and lived a life much better than most. When he was 23, he got married to Jane Wilde. They had three children together: Robert, Lucy and Tim. When Lucy grew up, Stephen used to write space stories for young children with her.

To make science more popular, he was invited to go on a lot of international TV shows including Star Trek, The Big Bang Theory, The Simpsons and Comic Relief. In 2012, he opened the Paralympics.

Stephen always loved space but when he got ill he realised he would never be able to go. People arrange for him to go on a plane simulator called the ‘Vomit Comet’. It was the first time Stephen had been out of his wheelchair properly in 40 years.

Science today is much greater thanks to Stephen Hawking. If he hadn’t achieved what he did, we wouldn’t know as much as we do about space. Because of his great work, we know how the world was created and what black holes really are. He was an extraordinary person.