By: Barnali Bose ( Editor,ICN-Group )
KOLKATA : A strange coincidence marks March 14. In the early hours on Wednesday, March 14,2018, Stephen Hawking, the renowned theoretical physicist,cosmologist, author and Director of Research at the centre of Theoretical Cosmology within the University of Cambridge, passed away at the age of 76. On the same date, in the year 1879, Albert Einstein,the great physicist scientist was born in Ulm,Germany.
Stephen Hawking was born in Oxford,England on January 8,1942. He has been well known as the physicist whose theory of the Black holes and Relativity created an indelible mark in the scientific arena. He wrote several popular science books including A Brief History of Time in 1988 which became an instant bestseller.
At the age of 22, doctors gave Stephen Hawking only two years to live after he was diagnosed with a rare form of motor neurone disease.The illness left him wheelchair-bound and largely unable to speak except through a voice synthesiser.
His indomitable courage and persistence helped him conquer and delay death for more than five decades. He once said, “ I’m not afraid of death,but I’m in no hurry to die.I have so much I want to do first.”
His brilliance and humour has inspired people across the world.He said, “ The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance.It is the illusion of knowledge.”
Prof Hawking was the first to set out a theory of Cosmology as a union of Relativity and Quantum mechanics.He also discovered that black holes leak energy and fade to nothing – a phenomenon that later came to be known as Hawking radiation in 1974.
His life story was the subject of the Oscar-winning biopic film,The Theory of Everything in 2014 starring Eddie Redmayne. It was based on the memoir, Travelling to Infinity- My life with Stephen,by Jane Hawking,his first wife.
Prof Hawking once said, “ However difficult life may seem,there is always something you can do and succeed at.”His exemplary will power and invincible determination is indeed worth emulating.
