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Stephen Hawking: A Life Well Lived
In 1963 Stephen Hawking was given two years to live. Defying all the odds, he died in March 2018 at age seventy-six as the most celebrated scientist in the world. This carefully researched, and now newly updated, up-to-the-minute biography and tribute gives a rich picture of Hawking's remarkable life – his childhood, the heart-rending beginning of his struggle with motor neurone disease, his ever-increasing international fame, and his long personal battle for survival in pursuit of a scientific understanding of the universe. From more recent years, Kitty Ferguson describes his inspiring leadership at the London Paralympic Games, the release of the film The Theory of Everything, his continuing work on black holes and the origin of the universe, the discovery of ‘supertranslations’, and the astounding ‘Starshot’ program. Here also are his intense concern for the future of the Earth and his use of his celebrity to fight for environmental and humanitarian causes, and, finally, a ground-breaking paper he was working on at the time of his death, in which he took issue with some of his own earlier theories.
688 pages, Paperback
Published March 7, 2019
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55 people want to read
About the author
Kitty Ferguson
23 books29 followersKitty Ferguson, a former professional musician with a life long interest in science, is an independent scholar and lecturer who lives in Cambridge, England, and South Carolina.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
April 1, 2020
"I've been searching for something my whole life, something to explain a world that is by turns kind and cure, beautiful and confusing. A single, all-encompassing idea that can explain the nature of reality, where it all came from and why we exist at all."
Ferguson’s Biography of Stephen Hawking. I’ve not read any of Hawking’s book before, expecting it to be too hard. I happened to see this book in our library lying in the display and took it as an adventure. One year back, I purchased a book written by Penrose on symmetries. But, I’ve not yet opened it due to fear. Anyhow, I decided to give this biography a try. More than a biography this book also provides a brief idea of some of the most exciting fields in Physics like black holes, wormholes, Hawking’s radiation, gravitational waves, multiverse, string theory, dark matter and so on. I’ve read Prof. T. Padmanabhan’s book on gravitation a few years back and hence have some understanding. This book has enriched it though I would say that still, my knowledge is mediocre in this subject. Coming to Hawking, I found him to be an incredibly curious guy not afraid to take on challenges. To me, his most significant discovery is Hawking's radiation. His contribution in combining relativity and quantum mechanics is another remarkable achievement. He has prophesized several other ideas, and some of them have gone wrong. Like he was very confident that the grand unified theory will be ready by the end of the 20th century, which was not the case. He also had a different opinion about Higgs particles. But, one astonishing remark made by him in the Oxford union meeting in mid-November 2016 (just before his death) which I felt very alarming. He predicted that human beings will not survive more than 1000 years on earth, and viruses created by humans could be the very reason. He was also worried about the increase in natural calamities, and the developments that are taking place in Artificial intelligence which he considered could lead to overpowering of humans by intelligent machines. So he was vehemently proposing the idea that humans should start settling in other planets hoping that the same mistake will not be repeated there. Besides his scientific contributions, the humanitarian side of Dr Hawkings can be also known from this book. His appearance in the opening ceremony of Paralympics, deal with Intel and so on. Overall, it is a very informative book and a must-read for all tho who want to know more of Hawking's philosophies.
Ferguson’s Biography of Stephen Hawking. I’ve not read any of Hawking’s book before, expecting it to be too hard. I happened to see this book in our library lying in the display and took it as an adventure. One year back, I purchased a book written by Penrose on symmetries. But, I’ve not yet opened it due to fear. Anyhow, I decided to give this biography a try. More than a biography this book also provides a brief idea of some of the most exciting fields in Physics like black holes, wormholes, Hawking’s radiation, gravitational waves, multiverse, string theory, dark matter and so on. I’ve read Prof. T. Padmanabhan’s book on gravitation a few years back and hence have some understanding. This book has enriched it though I would say that still, my knowledge is mediocre in this subject. Coming to Hawking, I found him to be an incredibly curious guy not afraid to take on challenges. To me, his most significant discovery is Hawking's radiation. His contribution in combining relativity and quantum mechanics is another remarkable achievement. He has prophesized several other ideas, and some of them have gone wrong. Like he was very confident that the grand unified theory will be ready by the end of the 20th century, which was not the case. He also had a different opinion about Higgs particles. But, one astonishing remark made by him in the Oxford union meeting in mid-November 2016 (just before his death) which I felt very alarming. He predicted that human beings will not survive more than 1000 years on earth, and viruses created by humans could be the very reason. He was also worried about the increase in natural calamities, and the developments that are taking place in Artificial intelligence which he considered could lead to overpowering of humans by intelligent machines. So he was vehemently proposing the idea that humans should start settling in other planets hoping that the same mistake will not be repeated there. Besides his scientific contributions, the humanitarian side of Dr Hawkings can be also known from this book. His appearance in the opening ceremony of Paralympics, deal with Intel and so on. Overall, it is a very informative book and a must-read for all tho who want to know more of Hawking's philosophies.
July 24, 2019
Amazing depth of research. Have read two biographies of the same person in a row. Great personality. The determination of Stephen Hawking and his never give up attitude is worthy of emulation by all. Must read.
November 9, 2023
i’ve always wanted to know more abt Mr Hawking’s research (as a teen, didn’t know much until i picked this book up) the physics concepts here are so brilliantly explained i felt myself reading intently. research was well done, and the writing was awesome with bits of humour here and there too! a little hard to get through as someone whose reading taste is limited to fantasy/mystery but i definitely don’t regret picking this book up!
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews