Stephen Hawking, the famous author of A Brief History of Time, is one of the great men who enjoy international reputation in this century. Currently, he is Lucson Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge University. He is the most outstanding theoretical physicist in the world after Einstein.
All his life, he devoted himself to studying the space-time field where the general physical theorem of black holes no longer applies and the Big Bang principle of the origin of the universe. His prediction that black holes can emit radiation (now called Hawking radiation) is now an accepted hypothesis. In 1970s, together with Penrose, he proved the famous singularity theorem. Together, they won the Wolf Prize in Physics in 1988. In addition, his A Brief History of Time has sold 25 million copies, giving a good introduction to quantum physics and relativity.
1942 65438+1October 8th
Born in Oxford, England.
1962
After completing the physics degree course at Oxford University, he went to Cambridge University for postgraduate study. British astronomer Fred Hoyle (19 15-), the hero of Hawking's youth, is a professor of astronomy here. Hawking was diagnosed with motor neuron disease.
1965
Be awarded a doctorate. His research shows that the mathematical equation used to explain the collapse of black holes can also explain the expansion of the universe from a point.
1970
Hawking studied the characteristics of black holes. He predicted that the radiation from black holes (now called Hawking radiation) and the surface area of black holes would never decrease.
1974
Elected as a member of the Royal Society. He went on to prove that black holes have temperature, black holes emit thermal radiation, and gasification will lead to mass loss.
1980
Lucas, a professor of mathematics at Cambridge University (isaac newton once held this position).
1988
The publication of A Brief History of Time has become a bestseller of quantum physics and relativity.
1996 till now
Continue to work at Cambridge University.
Professor Hawking is a modern popular science novelist. His masterpiece is A Brief History of Time written in 1988, which is an excellent astronomical popular science novel. The author's imagination is rich, his ideas are wonderful, his language is beautiful and his words are meticulous, which is even more surprising. The outside world, the future changes are so magical and wonderful. This book has a cumulative circulation of 25 million copies and has been translated into nearly 40 languages. 1992 The film of the same name cost 3.5 million pounds. Hawking firmly believes that the basic ideas about the universe and the origin of life can be expressed without mathematics, and the world should be able to understand his profound theory through the audio-visual media such as movies. This book is a popular reading about exploring the nature of time and the frontier of the universe. It is the most important classic work about the scientific thought of the universe, which has changed the concept of the universe. As soon as this book was published, it caused great repercussions all over the world. A Brief History of Time is a landmark book for readers who prefer words to equations. She is good at being a contributor to human thoughts. This is a book that pursues knowledge infinitely and explores the essence of time and space.
Stephen william hawking, born on 194218 October, graduated from Oxford University and Trinity College of Cambridge University successively, and obtained a doctorate in philosophy from Cambridge University. In the later stage of college study, I began to suffer from "amyotrophic lateral sclerosis" (motor neuron disease) and paraplegia. He overcame the difficulty of disability and entered gonville and Caius College of Cambridge University as a researcher on 1965. During this period, he founded the famous theory that the beginning of the universe is "a point of infinite density" on the study of the origin of the universe. Since 1969, he has been a researcher of outstanding scientific achievements in gonville and Caius College. 1972- 1975 has been engaged in research work in the Institute of Astronomy and the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics of Cambridge University, 1975- 1977 as a senior lecturer in gravitational physics, and 1977- 1979 as a professor. In the meantime, 1974 was elected as the youngest member of the Royal Society. 1974- 1975 is a meritorious scholar in fairchild lecture of California Institute of Technology. 1978 won the Einstein Prize, the highest prize in theoretical physics research in the world. Hawking's fame began with the research results of black holes. After the integration of Einstein, another great theory of the 20th century-quantum theory. He thinks that the universe is limited, but it can't find the margin, just as the earth's surface is limited but it can't find the margin. Time also has a beginning, from about 654.38+0.5 billion years to 20 billion years ago. 1988 won the Wolf Prize in Physics.
Hawking lost his language ability in 1985, and the only tool to express his thoughts was a computer speech synthesizer. He used a few movable fingers to manipulate a special mouse to select letters and words on the computer screen to make sentences, and then played the sound through the computer. Usually it takes 5 or 6 minutes to make a sentence, and it takes 10 day to synthesize an hour of recorded speech. A Brief History of Time was written in 1988. By the end of 1995 and 10, the book has been translated into dozens of languages and the Chinese version has been published.
He is the author of Large-scale Structure of Space-time (co-authored with 1973), General Relativity: A Century Review of Einstein (co-edited with 1979), Hyperspace and Hypergravity (co-edited with 198 1), and Cosmic
1990 divorced his wife Jane Wilde after 25 years of marriage. 1September 199516th, married his nurse Elaine Mei Sen.
A Brief History of Time mainly introduces what cosmology is and the latest development of cosmology. Because it is aimed at non-professional readers, in order not to scare them, only one mathematical formula is put throughout, which is the famous Einstein mass-energy equation: E = MC 2.
The scientific progress of the last century is unparalleled. In the most popular language, A Brief History of Time expounds some of the oldest problems, such as:
* What is the universe like?
The answer to this question is not given in the book, because science cannot guarantee that all questions have answers. Although we can't find a set of theories to explain the whole universe, we can divide the problem into many small pieces and invent many theories, each of which explains a limited scope and ignores other influences. This method has achieved great success, such as Newton's law of universal gravitation. As long as the mass of stars is known, their orbits can be accurately calculated, but whether there are intelligent creatures on the structure of stars can be completely ignored.
Because of the success of this method, our understanding of the universe we live in has made a big step forward than that of the ancients. Now we know that the earth is just a planet revolving around the sun, the moon is our satellite, and we are all in the solar system. The solar system is just one of countless solar systems in the Milky Way. There are countless extragalactic galaxies outside the Milky Way.
From this, we suddenly found the most important point: the universe is not arbitrary, it is restricted by certain laws. Therefore, the ultimate goal of science is to integrate all partial theories into a complete and unified theory, which can describe anything in the universe.
The following problem is that this complete and unified theory must include ourselves, that is, it restricts our behavior. As a small part of this theory, do humans have the ability to understand the whole theory? In other words, it is impossible for human beings to find an ultimate conclusion, or they can only find a wrong conclusion.
The problems discovered not long ago are also well explained:
* Space, time and relativity
Before Einstein, almost everyone thought that time and space were absolute. Einstein's theory of relativity tells people that there is no absolute thing, everything is relative.
Let's consider a special case: suppose there is a universe in which there is nothing but nothing. For such a universe, time and space are meaningless because there is really no way to measure them. It can be seen that time and space are attached to "things" and exist.
The greatest contribution of relativity is to tell people that light has speed, and nothing can exceed the speed of light. Because of this, different observers measure different times for the same thing. The simplest example is to observe distant planets through a telescope. Suppose a planet is unfortunately hit by a comet and destroyed after the big bang. At the same time, the emitted light reached the earth through 65.438+0 billion light years and was seen by an astronomer. For this astronomer, the event of planet destruction is happening, but in fact, as early as 65.438 billion years ago, this planet did not exist.
Hawking
Stephen hawking, a British physicist, has spent his whole life studying the space-time and the Big Bang principle of the origin of the universe, which is no longer applicable to the general physical theorem of black holes. His prediction that black holes can emit radiation (now called Hawking radiation) is now an accepted hypothesis. His research work is far less well-known in the scientific community than his best-selling book A Brief History of Time. His best-selling book has sold 25 million copies, giving a lot of introduction to quantum physics and relativity.
Hawking has severe amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, which makes it difficult for him to move. I sat in a wheelchair for many years and had a tracheal operation at 1985. Since then, he has lost the ability to speak. 1974 was elected as the youngest member of the Royal Society. From 65438 to 0979, he served as Professor Lucson of Cambridge University, which was once held by Newton.
Life:
1942 65438+1October 8th
Born in Oxford, England.
1962
After completing the physics degree course at Oxford University, he went to Cambridge University for postgraduate study. British astronomer Fred Hoyle (19 15-), the hero of Hawking's youth, is a professor of astronomy here. Hawking was diagnosed with motor neuron disease.
1965
Be awarded a doctorate. His research shows that the mathematical equation used to explain the collapse of black holes can also explain the expansion of the universe from a point.
1970
Hawking studied the characteristics of black holes. He predicted that the radiation from black holes (now called Hawking radiation) and the surface area of black holes would never decrease.
1974
Elected as a member of the Royal Society. He went on to prove that black holes have temperature, black holes emit thermal radiation, and gasification will lead to mass loss.
1980
Lucas, a professor of mathematics at Cambridge University (isaac newton once held this position).
1988
The publication of A Brief History of Time has become a bestseller of quantum physics and relativity.
1996 till now
Continue to work at Cambridge University.
Professor Hawking is a modern popular science novelist. His masterpiece is A Brief History of Time written in 1988, which is an excellent astronomical popular science novel. The author's imagination is rich, his ideas are wonderful, his language is beautiful and his words are meticulous, which is even more surprising. The outside world, the future changes are so magical and wonderful. This book has a cumulative circulation of 25 million copies and has been translated into nearly 40 languages. 1992 The film of the same name cost 3.5 million pounds. Hawking firmly believes that the basic ideas about the universe and the origin of life can be expressed without mathematics, and the world should be able to understand his profound theory through the audio-visual media such as movies. This book is a popular reading about exploring the nature of time and the frontier of the universe. It is the most important classic work about the scientific thought of the universe, which has changed the concept of the universe. As soon as this book was published, it caused great repercussions all over the world. A Brief History of Time is a landmark book for readers who prefer words to equations. She is good at being a contributor to human thoughts. This is a book that pursues knowledge infinitely and explores the essence of time and space.