Stephen Hawking: A Man with a Mission

posted on Dec 15 by Guest Author in the Disability News, Technology category

Sometime in the next two years, the first commercial travel into space will begin on Virgin Galactic. Already hundreds of tickets have been sold for the two hour space visit. One individual who has his name on the list is famed British theoretical physicist and cosmologist, Stephen Hawking. It will be another milestone for this amazing scientist, who has accomplished much despite deteriorating health due to Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease), a condition in which the nerves that control the muscles shut down.

Hawking’s passion for science and the sky began at an early age. He studied cosmology at Oxford University and after graduating with honors continued his study of space at Cambridge University. But it was while he was a student that Hawking began having problems with his health. He experienced slurred speech and occasional falls. Doctors eventually discovered that he was in the early stages of ALS, and Hawking was given only two-and-half years to live–a devastating prognosis.

Hawking might have given up his aspirations if at the time he had not been sharing a hospital room with a leukemia patient. Seeing what this patient went through made him realized that his own situation was at least tolerable. He realized he still had a lot he wanted to do with his life. The disease also gave Hawking a renewed commitment to his studies. “I was bored with life before my illness,” he said. “There had not seemed to be anything worth doing.”

Forced to face his own mortality, Hawking took to his work and research with a renewed focus, and went on to become one of the greatest cosmologists and physicists of all time. His theories made him a celebrity in the science world and earned him many accolades. Besides his research, he also taught in several universities and wrote a number of books. But his continuing physical decline meant that by 1985 he permanently lost his voice after undergoing a tracheotomy.

This might have halted his career were it not for a California computer programmer who created a speech program that could be directed via head or eye movement. The technology allows a person to select words on a computer screen that are then passed through a speech synthesizer. At first, Hawking could select his words using a hand-held clicker. Today, having lost total body control, he directs the program through a cheek muscle attached to a sensor. With the help of assistants and the program, Hawking has been able continue his research.

His fragile health hasn’t tempered his fascination with space travel. In 2007, during a visit to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, he got the chance to experience an environment without gravity. Flying in a modified Boeing 727, he was freed from his wheelchair for two hours to experience bursts of weightlessness as the plane traveled over the Atlantic. “The zero-G part was wonderful and the higher-G part was no problem. I could have gone on and on. Space, here I come!” said Hawking.

Peter Diamandis: Stephen Hawking Hits Zero G

More on Stephen Hawking, see our older blog entry: Stephen Hawking Claims Aliens Exist and Not to Contact Them

Sources:
biography.com/print/profile/stephen-hawking-9331710
guardian.co.uk/science/2011/may/15/stephen-hawking-interview-there-is-no-heaven
independent.co.uk/news/science/branson-unveils-carrier-for-first-space-tourists-879800.html?action=Gallery&ino=4

Image Sources:
enjoyspace.com/en/news/don-t-trust-aliens
breakingustrends.com/how-come-stephen-hawking-does-not-believe-in-god/
luxurylaunches.com/transport/virgin_galactics_spaceshiptwo_successfully_completes_its_first_solo_glide_flight.php