THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING

The Theory of Everything

Colby S. Madsen
Salt Lake Community College
December 3 2015

THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING

The Theory of Everything

One day in early 1963 just shy of his twenty-first birthday, a brilliant young man was
diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) more commonly known as Lou Gehrigs
disease. This young mans name is Stephen Hawking, one of the most renowned physicists
throughout history and he is still alive today at the age of seventy-three. Stephen Hawking is
regarded as one of the most brilliant theoretical physicists in history with his focus being in the
field of cosmology (the science of the origin and development of the universe).
Stephen Hawking was born on the 300th anniversary of the death of Galileolong a
source of pride for Hawking on January 8, 1942 in Oxford England. He grew up just outside
of London as the eldest of four siblings. His mother was a medical research secretary and his
father a research biologist with a specialty in tropical diseases, so it didnt come as a surprise that
he was interested in science. As a student the topics he had the most interest in were physics and
mathematics because he believed that they offered the most fundamental insights into world.
Early on in Hawkings life he was recognized as a bright individual, but was not a very
good student. During his first year at St. Albans School he was third from the bottom of the class.
At the age of seventeen he started college at Oxford University, he originally had a desire to
study mathematics, but Oxford didnt have a degree focusing on that field. Hawking ended up
going towards physics as his major field of study, more specifically, cosmology. Hawking
accounted that he didnt really put much time into his studies, calculating that he averaged only
about an hour a day focusing on school and yet thats all he really needed. He graduated with
honors in natural science in 1962 and moved on to attend Trinity Hall and Cambridge University
for a PhD in cosmology.

THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING

In early 1963 Hawking was diagnosed with ALS and his doctors gave him two and a half
years to live. At this point in time it was not likely that he would complete his doctorate,
however, hawking defied the odds. Not only did he get his PhD, but he has gone way beyond,
giving us a greater understanding of how the universe works in the decades since.
Although the diagnosis was devastating for Hawking and his family, there were a few
events that helped him to fight through it all. One of these events happened shortly after
Hawking was released from the hospital. He had a dream that he was going to be executed, and
he said that this dream made him realize that there was still many things to do with his life. The
most significant of these events though was the fact that he was in love with a woman named
Jane Wilde whom he had met at a New Years party in 1963, shortly before being diagnosed with
ALS. The two were married just a couple years later in 1965. In a sense, Hawking being
diagnosed with ALS helped him to become the famous physicist that he is today. Hawking noted
before the diagnosis I had been very bored with life, there had not seemed to be anything worth
doing. From then on he devoted his life into his work and research.
Hawkings research revolved mostly around black holes, how the universe began and
how it will end. He studied the basic laws governing the universe, and proposed that since the
universe boasts a beginning the Big Bang it will likely have and ending. Working with a
fellow cosmologist, Roger Penrose, Hawking demonstrated that Einsteins Theory of General
Relativity suggests that space and time began at the birth of the universe and ends with black
holes, which implies that Einsteins theory and quantum theory must be united.
Using the two theories together Hawkings research showed that black holes werent
what the scientific community had thought they were. Simply put, he demonstrated that matter,

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in the form of radiation, can escape the gravitational force of a collapsed star (black hole), and
that this hawking radiation as it was called should cause black holes to shine.
Later in his life, 2014 to be exact, Hawking revised his theory on black holes which
removed the existence of an event horizon the point where nothing can escape. He instead
proposed something called an apparent horizon that would differ depending on quantum
changes within the black hole itself, but this theory still remains to be rather controversial within
the scientific community. Hawking also had one other proposal about the universe. He stated that
the universe itself has no boundary, much like the earth. Although the planet is finite, one can
travel around it (and through the universe) infinitely, never encountering a wall that would be
described as the end.
Over the course of his career, Hawking has been awarded many distinguished titles. He
was elected as a fellow of the Royal Society at the age of thirty-two, one of the youngest people
ever to achieve the honor. Later he was given the prestigious Albert Einstein Award as well as
being name the seventeenth Lucasian Professor of Mathematics, one of teachings most
renowned posts dating back to 1663. Isaac Newton was the second person to hold the title (he too
was a member of the Royal Society).
Stephen Hawking is also the author of many books, his first book written in 1988 was
titled A Brief History of Time. It was a short informative book on cosmology for the masses.
The book was a huge success selling millions of copies worldwide and has been translated into
more than forty different languages. The only problem was that it wasnt as easy to understand as
some had hoped it to be. As a result in 2001 Hawking released The Universe in a Nutshell

THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING

which offered a more illustrated guide to cosmologys big theories. Four years later, he released
an even easier book to understand, cleverly named A Briefer History of Time.
Hawking has written a few more books over the years including a childrens book that he
wrote with is daughter Lucy, but one book written in 2010 titled The Grand Design has some
pretty bold claims about the hunt for the theory of everything. In this book Hawking proposed a
radical new idea called M-theory. M-theory essentially predicts that there are many universes,
and that there is no theory of everything to describe our particular Universe. Instead he claims
that the laws of physics are different in each different universe, and that ours just happens to be
one in which the conditions are right for life as we know it. M-theory is not widely accepted and
some physicists dismiss it as little more than speculation.
In more recent times, July of this year to be exact, Hawking has joined forces with a
Russian billionaire named Yuri Milner to engage in a massive hunt for alien life. The project
called Breakthrough Listen is planned for ten years and will collect data using two of the worlds
most advanced radio telescopes in the U.S. and Australia to listen in on millions of stars within
the Milky Way and other nearby galaxies for radio signals that might be evidence of alien life.
Project leaders admit that there will be no way to analyze all the data without crowdsourcing the
processing. They have suggested linking into the extensive SETI@home initiative, which already
has more than three million members of the public contributing their resources to the search.
Stephen Hawking has lived an incredible life, he has contributed many things to the
scientific community despite his diagnosis of ALS early in his life. He has somehow defied all
odds, he was given two and a half years to live, fifty years ago, and he has made good use of his

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time in those fifty years. He is definitely one of the brightest individuals to ever live, helping the
human race to further push the boundaries of our knowledge.