Genius Overlooked

Genius Overlooked

Genius Overlooked














Jess Brock
Algebra III
Summer School
Mr. Palumbo
July 24, 1999
Stephen Hawking is, all in all, one of the greatest thinkers of the twentieth century. Dr. Hawking is a theoretical physicist.   In his own words, "A theoretical physicist…[tries] to construct mathematical models which represent the universe."   Sadly, though, his triumphs are often overshadowed by his illness.   Dr. Hawking suffers from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and generally his successes are viewed "even though" or "despite" his illness.   Viewing his achievements in this light minimizes what he has done for the scientific community and how he has changed and contributed to scientific thought.
Dr. Hawking was born in London in 1942, and received his doctorate from the University of Cambridge.     He proved in the late sixties that if general relativity is true and the universe is expanding, then the universe did arise from a big bang and a singularity most likely caused the big bang to occur.   In 1974, he discovered that black holes could radiate energy as particles are created in their vicinity.   He became the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge in 1979, a post once held by Sir Isaac Newton.   He wrote A Brief History of Time in 1988 to put his theories into the hands of the general public.   His book stayed on the London Sunday Times bestseller list for more than four years - the longest run for any book in history.   He is well known for his attempts to unite general relativity and quantum mechanics.   He has made countless other contributions to cosmology.
Dr. Hawking has redefined time, and changed the way it is thought of forever.   Dr. Hawking has dedicated much energy to following up Einstein's research into time travel.   To travel through time, one needs to exceed the speed of light; the problem is that one needs an infinite amount of power to exceed the speed of light....