“My goal is simple. It is complete understanding of the universe, why it is as it is and why it exists at all”. Stephan Hawking on his life’s philosophy.
Professor Stephan Hawking one of the greatest minds of all times breathed his last on March 14, 2018 at the age of 76 years. At a young age of 21 years, he was diagnosed with motor neuron disease which debilitated him for rest of his life. As per his saying, his body had disability yet his mind was free. Free to think and wonder at the universe, galaxies, stars and black holes which he was so fond of watching and studying. He wrote non-fiction books for the common man which became instantaneous hits. His most famous and bestselling books are ‘A Brief History of Time’, ‘The Universe in a Nutshell’ and ‘The Grand Design’. He engaged himself in the study of theoretical astronomy and cosmology focussing on the area of black holes and singularities in collaboration with his friend and colleague Roger Penrose at Cambridge.
Delving on Albert Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity, he proved many mathematical theorems which provided a set of conditions to the existence of a singularity in space-time. It meant that space-time has a beginning which happened with Big Bang event and would ultimately have an end in black holes.
He described his situation very aptly by saying “I relish the rare opportunity I’ve been given to live the life of the mind. But I know I need my body and that it will not last forever.”
The world will always remember his contributions to our understanding of the universe, its beginning and its end. We, at Human Biology Review pay our tributes to a great scientist, a great researcher and a great human being.
Professor S. P. Singh, Ph.D.
Editor-in-Chief, Human Biology Review
Former Dean, Faculty of Life Sciences,
Punjabi University, Patiala, India