According to reports from the BBC and other media, scientist Stephen Hawking died on March 14 at the age of 76. The smartest and loneliest man in the world is gone.

The death of a great man is often called "the death of a great star." Since Hawking has passed away, this term is more appropriate. After all, his old profession was studying celestial bodies.

Philosopher Russell once said that the desire for love, the pursuit of knowledge, and the unstoppable sympathy for human suffering are the three major driving forces that dominate his life. Similarly, Hawking, who spent most of his life in a wheelchair, was able to achieve what he has achieved today because of three major motivations: the willpower of a young boy, the curiosity of a naughty boy, and the sense of humor of a philosopher.

With these "three axes", Hawking was in a wheelchair, thinking about the universe, and time and time again, he directed mankind's attention to the vast space.

Hawking was born on Galileo’s birthday and died on Einstein’s birthday. If he knew anything underground, with his cunning personality, he would definitely say such a witticism. It seems that Einstein is right, God does not dice.

Young Hawking

When Hawking was 21 years old, he suffered from ALS and was very ill. The doctor told him that he only had two years to live. The full name of this kind of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Patients will first feel muscle weakness, which will later lead to paralysis and loss of the ability to speak, swallow and even breathe.

The ALS Research Association states that the average life expectancy of diagnosed patients is only 2 to 5 years. 50% of patients live for more than 3 years, 20% of patients live for more than 5 years, and like Hawking, less than 20% of patients survive for more than 30 years. A professor said in surprise: "Hawking is definitely a miracle. I have never seen anyone suffering from ALS live so long."

Hawking's long life is closely related to his optimistic character. relation.

After being diagnosed, people around him thought that Hawking would give up on himself. Unexpectedly, Hawking married a round-faced girl named Jane Wagner. His reason for getting married is outrageous: "At that time, I was in a daze and was listening to Wagner. It happened that this girl was also named Wagner, so we got married."

This Miss Wagner is also a strange woman. Someone asked Why would she marry a person who only has two years to live? She said without hesitation that she heard that the (former) Soviet Union's nuclear weapons would strike within two years.

Behind this almost crazy black humor, there is actually a desire not to compromise with fate easily. It was this open-mindedness and stubbornness that allowed Hawking to break the doctor's prophecy and live to an age where he could do whatever he wanted without going beyond the rules.

In 1974, the physics community was in full swing because of the black hole problem. People at that time had basically recognized that black holes were a physical fact, but in astronomical observations, no exact entity had yet been discovered, only a suspected object named Cygnus X-1.

Hawking expressed doubts about this celestial body. He made a bet with Thorne, a physicist at Caltech. If he lost, he would subscribe to Penthouse magazine for one year. This incident caused a great sensation at the time. After all, "Penthouse" was an erotic publication as famous as "Playboy".

Many years later, the answer was revealed, and scientists confirmed that Swan X-1 was indeed the real black hole. In 1990, Hawking gave a speech at the California Institute of Technology. After finishing his work, he walked straight to Thorne's office, dug out the gambling receipts from that year, and solemnly pressed his fingerprints to express his resignation.

Afterwards, Hawking fulfilled his promise and subscribed to Thorne's Penthouse magazine for a year.

In 1979, Hawking received the Lucasian Chair, the most important professorial title in mathematics. Facing this honor, Hawking took it easy and showed his talent as a joker: I posted notes randomly in the department office, and the department chair was very angry, so he elected me to be Professor Lucas so that I could move to another office.

In fact, Hawking has coveted the position for so long that he can recite the names of everyone who has served as Lucasian professor since Newton.

How joking Hawking's humor is, how dedicated he is to science.

Hawking's greatest ambition is to combine general relativity and quantum mechanics to establish a "unified field theory" and complete Einstein's unfinished business.

Black holes are not black, which is Hawking’s most important research result.

The traditional view is that the gravitational pull of a black hole is so huge that even fleeting light cannot escape from the black hole. Hawking firmly believes that black holes are not "black" and there must be radiation leaking out. In other words, black holes have entropy. This radiation that has yet to be confirmed is called "Hawking radiation."

In addition to creating the theory that black holes are not black, Hawking also has unique insights into issues such as time travel and the existence of aliens.

Hawking once published an article in the British "Daily Mail", saying that time travel is theoretically possible and that humans can open the door to the past and future.

Hawking said that there are three ways to travel through time and space.

The first is through a wormhole. There are holes or gaps in everything in the universe, and time is no exception. The cracks in time are wormholes. Wormholes are all around us, but they are invisible to the naked eye because they are "quantum foam" and are smaller than atoms. If one day, humans can capture a wormhole and enlarge it enough for humans to pass through, they will be able to travel through time and space.

The second method is through a black hole. According to Einstein's theory, time is like a river, flowing fast in some places and slow in other places. A supermassive black hole is equivalent to a natural time machine, which can significantly reduce the speed of time.

The third method is to fly at close to the speed of light. If a spacecraft can be built that approaches the speed of light, then time inside the cabin will slow down. When an astronaut flies in a spacecraft for one week, one hundred years have passed on the earth.

As for aliens, Hawking firmly believes in their existence. The reason is simple. There are 100 billion galaxies in the universe, and each galaxy contains hundreds of millions of stars. In such a vast space, Earth cannot be the only planet where life has evolved.

Although Hawking concluded that aliens must exist, he did not recommend that humans actively search for aliens. Because they may be more intelligent beings than humans, they regard the earth as a big fat piece of meat that can be slaughtered, which will bring disaster.

Hawking is not only a scientific giant, he is also very artistic.

The title of the book "The Universe in a Nutshell" is taken from the second scene of the second act of Shakespeare's famous play "Hamlet". In the play, Hamlet said: "Ah! God! I was shut up in a small nutshell, but I was so pretentious that I thought I was a king with endless heaven and earth."

In At the end of "The Universe in a Nutshell", Hawking used a verse from "The Tempest": "Ah! In this beautiful new world, there are such beautiful human beings living in it." Hawking cleverly used the word "brave" (brave) , beautiful) was replaced with "brane" (film), so Brave New World became a "universe in a nutshell."

Young people are deeply impressed by Hawking, not only because of the book "A Brief History of Time" that has been sold all over the world, but also because of his multiple crossovers, and he is occasionally glimpsed in popular culture.

In 2014, the rock band Pink Floyd released a new album, which contained a rock song in which Hawking participated: "The Loose Hawking." In fact, Hawking sang for the band as early as the 1990s. In that single, Hawking recited original lyrics like a hip-hop musician: Millions of years ago, we lived like birds and beasts.

In the science fiction movie "Star Trek: The Next Generation," Hawking plays himself in a spaceship, playing poker with a group of dead physicists, including Newton and Einstein.

In his book "The Universe in a Nutshell", Hawking wrote about this electrocution experience: "I defeated all these guys, but unfortunately the alarm went off and I didn't get back the money I won. "

In the American TV series "The Big Bang Theory", Hawking happily played a small role again. He was sitting in a wheelchair, tilting his head, looking smug.

Hawking's appearance made the aloof "Sheldon" scream in shock. In order to attract the idol's attention, he did not hesitate to put on a maid outfit and a short skirt.

I still vaguely remember the grand occasion when Hawking opened Weibo.

Hawking's first Weibo post, a greeting to Chinese netizens, gained more than 3 million fans and nearly a million likes. Just one day apart, Hawking's second Weibo once again caused a sensation. He will participate in the development of a nanoaircraft that can allow humans to reach the Centaur constellation. Hawking proudly said on Weibo that Russia's top tycoon Yuri Milner and Facebook founder "Xiao Zha" are also participating in this plan.

Hawking’s last Weibo post was posted on November 24, 2017.

Wang Junkai, a member of TFBOYS, asked Hawking in a video on Weibo what preparations should be made before humans explore the universe and immigrate to aliens to continue the earth's civilization? How to protect traditional culture?

On the day the question was asked, Hawking responded immediately: "I am very happy to give a video response to Wang Junkai's excellent question. His question allowed me to see the thinking and curiosity of China's millennials about the future. I hope that this curiosity and confidence can continue as you pursue science and other creative ideas, and let us look into the future together."

In the video, Hawking said that mankind's impact on the earth will continue. Destruction is threatening our own survival. To consider how to live in the future, we must have imagination. At the same time, he also said that he did not believe that traditional culture would disappear. Art and music are for humans and have no meaning for alien species. There is no need to worry about this.

Now, this person has passed away, leaving only images and words in the world.

According to the Big Bang theory, the birth of the universe was due to an extremely tiny point that exploded at a certain moment. After billions of years of expansion, the singularity finally evolved into today’s universe. .

During his lifetime, Hawking participated in a popular science program called "Star Talk". In the program, the host asked him: What was the universe like before the Big Bang?

Hawking replied: Before the big bang, the universe was silent.

Humankind’s understanding of physics is still at a naive and ridiculous stage. It has not yet realized, and may never realize, that the universe, all things and life can exist in thousands of dimensions.

Perhaps in a certain dimension, Hawking is still tirelessly exploring the universe.