{"id":10246,"date":"2019-07-24T11:21:52","date_gmt":"2019-07-24T07:21:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/englishbookgeorgia.com\/blogebg\/?p=10246"},"modified":"2019-07-24T13:06:00","modified_gmt":"2019-07-24T09:06:00","slug":"reaching-for-the-stars-with-stephen-hawking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/englishbookgeorgia.com\/blogebg\/reaching-for-the-stars-with-stephen-hawking\/","title":{"rendered":"Reaching for the Stars with Stephen Hawking"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/englishbookgeorgia.com\/blogebg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/stephen-hawking.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-10247\" srcset=\"https:\/\/englishbookgeorgia.com\/blogebg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/stephen-hawking.jpg 600w, https:\/\/englishbookgeorgia.com\/blogebg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/stephen-hawking-300x150.jpg 300w, https:\/\/englishbookgeorgia.com\/blogebg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/stephen-hawking-190x95.jpg 190w, https:\/\/englishbookgeorgia.com\/blogebg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/stephen-hawking-280x140.jpg 280w, https:\/\/englishbookgeorgia.com\/blogebg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/stephen-hawking-445x223.jpg 445w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">World-renowned physicist Stephen Hawking died at the age of 76 in the early hours of March 14, 2018. Hawking, who was paralysed by motor neurone disease for more than 55 years, was known for his work on black holes, cosmology, and quantum gravity but was perhaps best known as the author of&nbsp;<em>A Brief History of Time<\/em>, which has sold more than 10 million copies since its publication in 1988.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It was a few months before his 1965 wedding to linguist Jane Wilde that the brilliant graduate research student fell down a flight of stairs at Cambridge University in London. Stephen Hawking had been growing increasingly unsteady on his feet and had begun to have difficulty with his speech. Doctors had declared the onset of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS \u2013 a type of motor neurone disease \u2013 two years earlier when Hawking was 21.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"700\" height=\"455\" src=\"https:\/\/englishbookgeorgia.com\/blogebg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/marriage-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-10266\" srcset=\"https:\/\/englishbookgeorgia.com\/blogebg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/marriage-1.jpg 700w, https:\/\/englishbookgeorgia.com\/blogebg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/marriage-1-300x195.jpg 300w, https:\/\/englishbookgeorgia.com\/blogebg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/marriage-1-190x124.jpg 190w, https:\/\/englishbookgeorgia.com\/blogebg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/marriage-1-280x182.jpg 280w, https:\/\/englishbookgeorgia.com\/blogebg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/marriage-1-445x289.jpg 445w, https:\/\/englishbookgeorgia.com\/blogebg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/marriage-1-600x390.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Now came proof that the incurable condition, in which the body\u2019s muscles \u2013 including those needed to keep breathing \u2013 gradually stop working, was getting worse. With an average survival rate of two or three years, Hawking did not expect to live long enough to finish his PhD.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Questioning the universe | Stephen Hawking\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/xjBIsp8mS-c?start=14&#038;feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the decades since, Hawking challenged conventional thinking on many fronts, from his illness \u2013 his case is the most extended recorded for a person with ALS \u2013 to the origins of the universe itself. In 1974, Hawking, whose father had been a research biologist, put forward groundbreaking theories about the nature of black holes, areas of space-time with an intense gravitational pull from which nothing can escape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Hawking argued that black holes were not completely dark and did, in fact, give off radiation, thereby providing the key to understanding how the universe was formed. He further argued that the cosmos was boundless and that its beginning was down to the laws of science, without any need for a creator or god. His insights earned him membership of the Royal Society \u2013 a fellowship of the world\u2019s most eminent scientists \u2013 at the unusually young age of 32.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Following in the footsteps of Sir Isaac Newton, who 300 years earlier had discovered the law of gravity on which Hawking built his theories, he became Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge in 1979, a post he would hold for the next 20 years. He might have remained celebrated only within academic circles had he not wished to share his knowledge with the public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\nhttps:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=hXC2JK0I8QU\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>A Brief History of Time<\/em>&nbsp;was such an instant success that when the publishers, realising a photograph had been printed upside down, tried to recall it, they found all the books had been bought. Since then there have been several reprints with some 10 million copies sold. Hawking wrote that his goal was simple: \u201c&#8230; complete understanding of the universe, why it is as it is, and why it exists at all.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">An emergency tracheotomy to save him from pneumonia robbed Hawking of the remains of his voice in 1985, and he became associated with a voice synthesiser which he operated with his cheek. His marriage to Jane, with whom he had three children, broke down after, as she put it, \u201cfame and fortune muddied the waters and \u2026 took him way out of the orbit of our family.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Hawking married his nurse, Elaine Mason, in 1995 but divorced her 11 years later amid claims, by other carers, that she had physically abused him. With his daughter, Lucy, Hawking published a series of science books for children, from whom he received many letters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Hawking gained popularity outside the academic world and appeared in several TV shows including\u00a0<em>The Simpsons<\/em>,\u00a0<em>Red Dwarf<\/em>, and\u00a0<em>The Big Bang Theory<\/em>. In 2014, his life story was portrayed in the award-winning film,\u00a0<em>The Theory of Everything<\/em>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"A tribute to Stephen Hawking | Christophe Galfard | TEDxOslo\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/39x2Uaf9RNc?start=135&#038;feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Conclusion<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">You might think that only hardship leads to success, but it\u2019s not true. Stephen Hawking believed, that each and every one of us is unique and gifted with a power of the human spirit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>\u201cWe are all different. There is no such thing as a standard or run-of-the-mill human being, but we share the same human spirit.\u201d\u2013 Stephen Hawking<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-media-text alignwide\"><figure class=\"wp-block-media-text__media\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"257\" height=\"400\" src=\"https:\/\/englishbookgeorgia.com\/blogebg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/9780857502636-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-10267\" srcset=\"https:\/\/englishbookgeorgia.com\/blogebg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/9780857502636-1.jpg 257w, https:\/\/englishbookgeorgia.com\/blogebg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/9780857502636-1-193x300.jpg 193w, https:\/\/englishbookgeorgia.com\/blogebg\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/9780857502636-1-190x296.jpg 190w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 257px) 100vw, 257px\" \/><\/figure><div class=\"wp-block-media-text__content\">\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size wp-block-paragraph\"><em>My Brief History<\/em>&nbsp;recounts Stephen Hawking\u2019s improbable journey, from his postwar London boyhood to his years of international acclaim and celebrity. Lavishly illustrated with rarely seen photographs, this concise, witty, and candid account introduces readers to a Hawking rarely glimpsed in previous books: the inquisitive schoolboy whose classmates nicknamed him Einstein; the jokester who once placed a bet with a colleague over the existence of a particular black hole; and the young husband and father struggling to gain a foothold in the world of physics and cosmology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Price: &nbsp;<\/strong><del><strong>45.50<\/strong><\/del><strong>&nbsp;\u2013 27,50 Gel<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Bookshop:<\/strong>&nbsp;#14 Chavchavadze Ave<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>World-renowned physicist Stephen Hawking died at the age of 76 &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10250,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","cat_1"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/englishbookgeorgia.com\/blogebg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10246","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/englishbookgeorgia.com\/blogebg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/englishbookgeorgia.com\/blogebg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/englishbookgeorgia.com\/blogebg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/englishbookgeorgia.com\/blogebg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10246"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/englishbookgeorgia.com\/blogebg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10246\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10268,"href":"https:\/\/englishbookgeorgia.com\/blogebg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10246\/revisions\/10268"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/englishbookgeorgia.com\/blogebg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/englishbookgeorgia.com\/blogebg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/englishbookgeorgia.com\/blogebg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/englishbookgeorgia.com\/blogebg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}