Stephen Hawking
Stephen Hawking
Stephen William Hawking, CH, CBE, FRS, FRSAis an English theoretical physicist, cosmologist, author and Director of Research at the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology within the University of Cambridge. His scientific works include a collaboration with Roger Penrose on gravitational singularity theorems in the framework of general relativity, and the theoretical prediction that black holes emit radiation, often called Hawking radiation. Hawking was the first to set forth a theory of cosmology explained by a union of the general theory of...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionScientist
Date of Birth8 January 1942
CityOxford, England
It is no good getting furious if you get stuck. What I do is keep thinking about the problem but work on something else. Sometimes it is years before I see the way forward. In the case of information loss and black holes, it was 29 years.
Most sets of values would give rise to universes that, although they might be very beautiful, would contain no one able to wonder at that beauty.
There are grounds for cautious optimism that we may now be near the end ofthe search for the ultimate laws of nature.
I want to know why the universe exists, why there is something greater than nothing.
Philosophers have not kept up with modern developments in science. Particularly physics.
The radiation left over from the Big Bang is the same as that in your microwave oven but very much less powerful. It would heat your pizza only to minus 271.3*C - not much good for defrosting the pizza, let alone cooking it.
The universe is governed by science. But science tells us that we can't solve the equations, directly in the abstract.
There are too many accidents that can befall life on a single planet.
I enjoy all forms of music - pop, classical and opera.
You can't regulate every lab in the world.
Science predicts that many different kinds of universe will be spontaneously created out of nothing. It is a matter of chance which we are in.
Among physicists, I'm respected I hope.
I used to think information was destroyed in black hole. This was my biggest blunder, or at least my biggest blunder in science.
Maybe I don't have the most common kind of motor neuron disease, which usually kills in two or three years.