A genius who grew up in a pile of books
The wind was cold, and Frank walked quickly to the window with a test tube in his left hand and checked it again. It was so cold that he sealed off all four corners. Not far from the window, you can vaguely feel the smell of war. Under the terror of death, a baby's cry broke the cold and frozen air.
This day is 1942 1.8. Stephen william hawking was born in this warm family. At the age of 6 1, Einstein was completing a series of scientific papers, such as Science and Religion, and preparing to go to the Soviet Union to participate in activities organized by Jews. Perhaps because he was too busy, the great scientist failed to foresee the birth of his successor. Hawking Jr. brought a lot of joy to Frank and Isabel, but it also brought a lot of trouble. Taking care of children is a big challenge for them, which is much more complicated than writing medical theories. Although Isabel has done a lot of research in various fields, in order to be an excellent mother, she still has to catch up on a lot of baby care knowledge.
As time goes by, Hawking grows up day by day and occasionally makes a few faces to amuse his parents.
Several years have passed, and Hawking can walk and talk in a blink of an eye, but strangely, unlike other children, he often looks at books on the shelf and is silent for a while, which is more attractive than playing with toys. So his parents decided to provide him with the best learning conditions, hoping that his son could surpass himself. It is common for parents to dream about their children not only in China, but also in all countries.
Later, Hawking had a younger sister and his parents adopted a younger brother. Since then, Hawking is no longer alone. He is more willing to take care of his younger brothers and sisters than to play with his companions. Hawking soon reached the age of study, and his IQ was the same as that of other children in his class, except that there were many more books in his room. He made outstanding academic achievements, went straight all the way, and finally got into Oxford University as he wished. This is the result that his parents most want to see, and it is also the result of Hawking's efforts for many years. After entering the university, Hawking's parents often talk about his employment from time to time.
Hawking himself doesn't care about this. He doesn't think much about the future. Like most students of the same age, he is in a confused period and will not spend too much time thinking about his future or academic papers. Of course, he often plays with his classmates, but he doesn't like sports and is not good at all kinds of sports. His hands and feet are far less flexible than his own brain. Hawking was ugly when he was a child, but he just couldn't control it. Once or twice, after falling down at school, he couldn't get up by himself-this was a signal, and a sense of foreboding hung over him. However, he still spent his 2 1 birthday happily.
Diseases fell from the sky.
Since childhood, sports has not been Hawking's strong point, and he is not good at almost all ball games. In the third year of studying in Oxford, Hawking noticed that he became more clumsy and fell down once or twice for no reason. On one occasion, he suddenly fell down the stairs somehow, immediately fell into a coma and almost died.
However, it was not until 1962 when Hawking was a graduate student in Cambridge that his mother noticed her son's abnormal condition. Hawking, who just celebrated 2 1 birthday, spent two weeks in the hospital. After various examinations, it was diagnosed as "Luger's disease", that is, motor neuron atrophy. His limbs will get out of control more and more, then affect his body and internal organs, his heart and lungs, and finally his sudden death. He has two years at most, and may not even wait for the day when he gets his bachelor's degree.
At first, the condition deteriorated quite quickly, which was a predictable blow to Hawking. He almost gave up all his studies and research, and life began to face severe challenges, just like the flowers that were about to open suddenly suffered heavy losses.
The condition is getting worse. By 1970, Hawking, whose academic prestige is increasing day by day, has been unable to walk by himself. Helpless, he began to use a wheelchair. He hasn't left since.
Even in a wheelchair, Hawking didn't escape the trick of fate. 1991March, Hawking was knocked down by a car on his way back to his apartment in Berlin. The left arm was broken, the head was cut off, and 13 stitches were stitched. However, after only 48 hours of correction, the strong Hawking returned to work in the office. It never rains but it pours. Just when Hawking and his friends went to the country house, Hawking overturned in the bushes because the wheelchair fell backwards after turning an uphill corner.
1984, he spoke with great difficulty and began to slur his words. It was a long time before I said a few words. 1985, Hawking got pneumonia again, and his trachea was cut off during the treatment. After that, he could never speak again.
Later, people installed a computer and a speech synthesizer in his wheelchair. He only used two perfect fingers to knock out what he wanted to say on the keyboard, formed corresponding sentences, and made sounds through a speech synthesizer. He used this method to conduct academic exchanges and make academic reports.
In the face of challenges, fate seems to flinch. A year and a half have passed, and another year and a half have passed. He is still alive and strong.
No matter how bad the fate is, people have to do something. Where there is life, there is hope.
His body has changed so much that he can't move soon. As the doctor expected, he didn't have the heart to study academic problems until a girl appeared, which changed his life track and gave him the courage to live.
The person who brought Hawking the first miracle was Jane Wilde, his girlfriend. 1962 In the summer, Jane met Hawking, who walked awkwardly and faltered, through her friends, and met him several times later. As a result, they have love, but a little more bitter. The power of love is irresistible. On July14th of the following year, Jane and Hawking got married. Their love view did not give up because of the appearance of illness, but became more firm. They fought side by side to deal with the disease, breaking the myth that they can only live for two and a half years.
Hawking resumed academic research and successfully obtained a doctorate. Hawking has a unique sense of humor towards women. When people asked him what his goal was, he replied: first, he wanted to know what was in the black hole; Secondly, he wants to know what a woman is.
Years later, Jane wrote in her memoir "Music Moves the Stars": "I love him very much, and nothing can stop me from marrying him. I am willing to cook, wash clothes, shop, clean up the housework for him and give up my previous ambitions. "
Hawking's body can't move, and it takes several complicated conversion processes to say a word, but even this can't change his academic research. He successfully finished A Brief History of Time. This is the greatest book in physics that reveals the mystery of the universe after Einstein's theory of relativity. He is one of the most successful disabled people, and he is also the most brave person who can create miracles and challenge fate. He interpreted the concept of time and broke it. People who were sentenced to death in their twenties have lived to this day. 20 12 years, he is 70 years old.
Physical theory of "scientific giant"
(1) Black holes are not black.
Hawking's research object is the universe, but he has never been interested in observing astronomy, and has only observed it several times through a telescope. Compared with traditional scientific methods such as experiment and observation, Hawking's method relies on intuition.
The great achievement of "black hole is not black" comes from the flash of an idea. 1970 1 1 One night in June, Hawking slowly climbed into bed and began to think about the problem of black holes. He suddenly realized that a black hole should have a temperature, so that it would release radiation. In other words, black holes are not that black.
This epiphany, after three years of thinking, formed a complete theory. 1973165438+1October, Hawking officially announced to the world that black holes constantly emit X-rays and gamma rays, which is the famous "Hawking radiation". Before that, people thought that black holes could only swallow but not spit.
From the singularity of BIGBANG to the radiation mechanism of black holes, Hawking has made outstanding contributions to the development of quantum cosmology. Hawking won the Wolf Prize in Physics from 65438 to 0988.
(2) The latest development of quantum mechanics.
Hawking hopes to solve the mystery of the birth of the universe. In the 1970s, Hawking applied quantum mechanics to explain the phenomenon of black holes, but in the next 30 years, it became more difficult to explain the whole universe with quantum mechanics. Hawking wants to find a theory that can perfectly explain the whole phenomenon of the universe to explain the birth of the universe from 65.438+0.37 billion years to the present, but after many years, even if he is infinitely close to him, he still has not reached a conclusion. According to his theory of quantum mechanics, the birth of the universe was caused by the Big Bang, which was the product of an infinitely small compressed substance exploding under supergravity (which can also be understood as infinite density). The theoretical category of quantum mechanics cannot explain how this process works. Why is this happening? Hawking said, "There must be a theory that can describe small-scale gravity." The latest scientific breakthrough is Hawking's colleague, mike green of Queen Mary College in London. Green) participated in the construction of superstring theory, referred to as "string theory". This theory points out that all particles and natural forces are actually tiny objects similar to strings in vibration, which solves the gravity problem that Hawking has been trying to solve. This theory must be based on the fact that the universe has 9, 10 or even more dimensions, and the three-dimensional world we live in may only be one of the real universes. At present, a large number of scientists all over the world have done relevant experiments in space and on the earth to prove string theory, and proved from experiments to support Hawking's black hole theory and quantum theory.
(3) Time machine theory
Stephen william hawking, a famous British physicist, made a surprising remark after admitting the existence of aliens: he claimed that it was theoretically feasible to fly humans into the future time machine, and the required conditions included wormholes in space or spacecraft with a speed close to the speed of light. However, Hawking also warned against going back to see history by time machine, because "only crazy scientists would want to go back to the past and' reverse cause and effect'."
According to British media reports, physicist Hawking mentioned in a recent documentary about the universe that humans can actually build spaceships close to the speed of light and enter the future.
Hawking even said that he didn't dare to talk nonsense and didn't want to talk more about the time machine because he was worried that others would regard him as a "freak". It was not until after the documentary that he dared to discuss it generously.
(d) There is a time gap.
As for the key point of time machine, Hawking emphasized the so-called "four-dimensional space", which scientists named "wormhole". Hawking emphasized that the "wormhole" is around us, but it is too small to be seen by the naked eye. They exist between space and time. He pointed out that everything in the universe is neither flat nor real. Close observation shows that all objects have holes or folds, which is a basic physical law and applies to time. Time also has tiny cracks, wrinkles and gaps. The space smaller than molecules and atoms is named "quantum bubble", and "wormhole" exists in it.
(5) Back to the "distant past"
However, the tiny tunnels or shortcuts that scientists try to cross time and space are constantly forming, disappearing or transforming in the quantum world, which connect two different spaces and time. Some scientists think that one day it may be possible to catch the "wormhole" and enlarge it infinitely so that humans and even spaceships can cross it; In addition, with sufficient electricity and complete technology, scientists may be able to build a huge "wormhole".
Hawking pointed out that in theory, just visiting or "wormholes" can't take people to other planets. If the two ends of wormholes are in the same position and separated by time instead of distance, then spacecraft can fly in and out, still close to the earth, and just enter the so-called "distant past". Because in the four-dimensional space, 10 minutes may be n hours.
(6) Spaceships can go to the "future"
Hawking said that if scientists can build a spacecraft with a speed close to the speed of light, the time of the spacecraft in the cabin will inevitably slow down, because it cannot violate the law that the speed of light is the maximum speed limit. Then flying for a week is equivalent to being on the ground 100 years, which is equivalent to flying into the future.
Hawking takes the artificial satellite as an example, which means that when the satellite is in orbit, the time on the satellite is slightly faster than the time on the ground because it is less affected by the gravity of the earth. Hawking thus imagined a large-scale extremely fast spacecraft, which can accelerate to 97,000 kilometers per hour in 1 second, and accelerate to 99.99% of the speed of light in six years, which is 2000 times faster than Apollo 10, the fastest spacecraft in history. The passengers on the ship are flying to the future in disguise and making a veritable time travel.
Writing science fiction at the forefront of science
Hawking is an outstanding contemporary physicist. He is not only at the forefront of scientific research, but also has written many fascinating popular science books.
In A Brief History of Time, Hawking is obsessed with the theory of grand unification, which is Einstein's unfinished dream. Hawking admits in his book that everything in the universe cannot be described and predicted by a single wonderful formula, because the uncertainty principle of quantum theory determines that the universe is the unity of uncertainty and certainty. Hawking used a map model to illustrate that the diversity of the universe may need a set of theories to describe it.
The essence of time and space was expressed in a complete mathematical form in general relativity 80 years ago, and the basic principles of quantum theory also appeared 70 years ago. However, can these two most accurate and successful theories in the whole physics be unified in a single quantum gravity? Two of the most famous physicists in the world have launched an extreme and extreme debate on this issue. This book is based on six speeches and final debates given by Hawking and Penrose at Cambridge University.
The charm of the future begins with Hawking's prediction of the next billion years of the universe and ends with Don Kubit's understanding of the final judgment. It introduces the development process of prediction and the methods we use to predict the future today.
The Universe in the Shell is Hawking's most important work after A Brief History of Time. In this book, Hawking once again takes us to the forefront of theoretical physics. In Hawking's world, truth and fantasy are sometimes just a thin line. Hawking explained in popular language, reminding us to fully imagine the universe, and with his unique enthusiasm, invited us to launch an extraordinary journey of time and space.
Hawking is one of the great men who enjoy international reputation in this century. He is the most important general relativity and cosmologist in the contemporary era. He is known as the greatest living scientist and the "king of the universe". Although he suffered from Luger's disease (motor neuron atrophy) and was confined in a wheelchair for 40 years, he was physically and mentally disabled, overcame his disability and became a supernova in the international physics community. He transcended the theory of relativity, quantum mechanics and the Big Bang and entered the "geometric dance" to create the universe. His thoughts traveled brilliantly in the vast space-time and solved the mystery of the universe. He suffered unbearable pain and created miracles that ordinary people could not create. His love for life and enthusiasm for scientific research, as well as his tenacity and persistence, are all worth learning.