The concern caused by Hawking's death obviously goes far beyond the scope of science. Such public attention, Hawking is the first person in the scientific community, but also unique. As far as attention is concerned, compared with Hawking, the "second person" is inevitably eclipsed. Therefore, while remembering and remembering this great scientist, we can't help asking, what makes Hawking different? In my opinion, there are three key words that deserve special attention-they together constitute Hawking in our eyes, whether it is the real Hawking or not.
There is no doubt that Hawking is a scientist. Specifically, he is a physicist who studies black holes. Without his scientific achievements, he certainly wouldn't receive such attention. However, although countless scientists have made contributions to exploring the unknown and understanding the world, the social influence of scientists in different fields is indeed very different. In the history of modern science, most people will agree that three physicists-Newton, Einstein and Galileo-have the greatest influence on science and society. They not only built one physical building after another, but also profoundly changed the way we know the world.
It can be referenced that since the 20th century, the two Nobel Prize achievements with the highest public attention should be the discovery of Higgs boson and LIGO gravitational wave. The scale of these two studies is far beyond the world around us, but this strangeness and freshness can stimulate the public's interest best.
Hawking in a wheelchair, this classic image has been deeply rooted in people's hearts. Nowadays, few people have seen Hawking when he is healthy. 2 1 year-old was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), commonly known as gradual freezing, and the doctor diagnosed that he could only live for two years. However, he lived for another 55 years, which in itself is a miracle of life. At the age of 43, he was operated on for pneumonia, and his speech ability was completely lost. Since then, he can only make speeches and ask questions through a speech synthesizer.
Being ill is Hawking's misfortune, but it also makes him great. Martin rees, an astrophysicist and former president of the Royal Society, said of Hawking: "We praise him, his outstanding academic achievements and his most popular book A Brief History of Time. On top of all this, praise his feat of defeating the prison of the body. "
Hawking's academic achievements are obvious to all, but we can't deny that even Hawking himself does not deny that his illness distinguishes him from other scientists. The visual difference makes us always mention Hawking's indomitable spirit in the face of diseases and his spirit of never giving up.
A somewhat similar example to Hawking is john nash, who suffered from schizophrenia for nearly 30 years, but eventually recovered, and won the 1994 Nobel Prize in Economics for his research on game theory. When we talk about Nash, we will also talk about this illness experience. Another similarity between them is that they both have a famous autobiographical film: Hawking is The Theory of Everything and Nash is a beautiful mind.
Black holes, diseases and Cambridge add up to make Hawking unique. Steven Weinberg is the winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics. He has made great achievements in cosmology and particle physics. He has also written popular science books such as The First Three Minutes and The Dream of the Ultimate Theory, which are not inferior to A Brief History of Time, but the public is very strange to him. Many people think that Edward Witten is the greatest theoretical physicist after Einstein. At the same time, he studied superstring theory as a possible candidate for grand unified theory. It seems more suitable to be Einstein's successor who pursues a unified theory, but his reputation is only prominent in academic circles.
A Brief History of Time has become a super bestseller (40 language versions, with sales exceeding 6.5438+million copies). Of course, marketing plays a vital role, but these marketing strategies can't play a similar role in other equally excellent popular science books, and even the effect is far from perfect. This shows that the best-selling phenomenon of A Brief History of Time is the result of Hawking's unique personal characteristics, not the reason. The best-selling of this book in turn further established Hawking's image as a "star scientist".
Hawking died, and his symbols disappeared. He is no longer a black hole explorer, a prisoner in a wheelchair, or an inheritor of the Cambridge spirit. But Huo Jinyong is here, and people inspired by him are still exploring the unknown road, and the light of idealism and heroism shining on him will not go out. As long as someone remembers his radiation equation, he will not die.
We are all scattered stars. We know that the elements of the universe make up us, so that we can miraculously stare at the universe and finally dissipate in the vast universe. However, this time we found that Hawking, who was originally the "king of the universe", was no exception.