Dr. Stephen Hawking was considered more brilliant than Einstein. Dr. Hawking was born on January 8, 1942 in Oxford, England, on the 300th anniversary of Galileo's death. Is it a coincidence? After studying at St. Albans School, he attended University College, Oxford. He wanted to study mathematics, but as Oxford was not available, he concentrated on physics and three years later obtained a degree in natural sciences. Stephen went to Cambridge to do research in cosmology. After receiving his doctorate, he became a Professorial Fellow at Gonville and Caius College. He left the Institute of Astronomy to become a professor in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics at Cambridge. He has held the position of Lacasian Professor of Mathematics since 1979. In the early 1960s, Stephen Hawking was diagnosed with the terrible disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), an incurable degenerative neuromuscular disease, also known as Lou Gerhigs disease. He was left paralyzed, unable to use all the muscles in his body. The only muscles he has use of are those around his eyes. This explains why Hawking became a theoretician rather than a practical scientist. He spends hours upon hours in his wheelchair pondering complex ideas and formulating baffling equations in his head. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essayDr. Hawking's work mainly concerns the field of general relativity and in particular the physics of black holes. He uses his theory of the origin of black holes to help explain the creation of the universe. In 1971 he hypothesized the formation (following the big bang) of numerous objects containing up to 1,000,000,000 tons of mass but which occupied only the space of a proton. These objects, called mini black holes, are unique in that, due to their immense mass and gravity, they are governed by the laws of relativity, while their tiny size requires that the laws of quantum mechanics apply to them too. In 1974, Hawking proposed that, in accordance with the predictions of quantum theory, black holes emit subatomic particles until they exhaust all their energy and finally explode. Hawking's work spurred efforts to theoretically delineate the properties of black holes. Previously it was thought that nothing could be learned about black holes. We now know that initially each black hole is a star about ten times larger than the sun. Over time, the star burns all its nuclear fuel and explodes. Some of the stellar matter is ejected, and the rest forms an incredibly dense mass with a huge gravitational pull known as a black hole. Black holes are not holes at all. They have no opening at the top or bottom and are invisible to the naked eye. The boundary or horizon of a black hole is the point where the gravitational field has enough strength to attract surrounding debris from the universe. It's like a giant magnet. Since even light entering these holes cannot escape to be reflected back to earth, scientists previously thought that these exploded stars had disappeared into the holes (black holes). His work was also important because it showed the relationship of these properties to the laws of classical thermodynamics and quantum mechanics. If that doesn't confuse you enough, Dr. Hawking has also published articles on The Large Scales Structure of Spacetime, General Relativity: An Einstein Centenary Investigation, 300 Years of Gravity, and the Nature of Space and Time. His books include A Brief History of Time, Black Holes and Baby Universes and Other Essays. His ideas and proposals on space have been widely accepted. Ha.