‘Remember to look up at the stars and not down at your feet’
Professor Stephen Hawking 1942-2018
Hawking defied medical science to live to 76 after MND diagnosis at just 21
By Paul Gallagher
He made sense of our beginning and searched restlessly for answers as to how it would all end. Now, in death as in life, he is closer to the stars than the rest of us.
Leading figures from politics and science yesterday paid tribute to Professor Stephen Hawking, the physicist and author whose groundbreaking insights reshaped our understanding of the universe and popularised some of cosmology’s most obscure and complex concepts.
The 76-year-old, who defied a rare and debilitating form of motor neurone disease to develop revolutionary theories about black holes and relativity, died peacefully at his Cambridge home yesterday.
Professor Stephen Toope, vice-chancellor of the University of Cambridge, the institution which supported Hawking’s work for more than half a century, said his research had left an “indelible legacy,” while his character provided “inspiration to millions”.
As a boy, Hawking would spent summer evenings in the back garden with his Glasgow-born mother, Isobel, staring at the sky above. Even at a young age, his mother noted his “strong sense of wonder” and how “the stars would draw him.” Such yearning was a constant throughout his life.
With Roger Penrose, Hawking showed that Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity implies space and time would have a beginning in the Big Bang and an end in black holes, a discovery which fused the apparently irreconcilable laws of general relativity and quantum mechanics.
He also revealed that black holes should not be completely black, but should emit radiation and eventually evaporate and disappear – a breakthrough now called Hawking Radiation.
Such achievements were made all the more remarkable by the fact Hawking was not expected to reach his 30th birthday. At the time of his diagnosis in 1964, aged just 22, he was given just a few years to live.
Although the disease robbed him of his mobility and his speech, his coruscating mind wandered the furthest reaches of our solar system and beyond.
The results, and the manner in which he relayed them, turned Hawking into an unlikely celebrity. His book, A Brief History of Time, almost single-handedly invented the popular science genre, and Hawking went on tour the international lecture circuit.
In a statement, his children, Lucy, Robert and Tim highlighted the warmth that made their father so beloved.
“He was a great scientist and an extraordinary man whose work and legacy will live on for many years,” they said.
“His courage and persistence with his brilliance and humour inspired people across the world.
“He once said, ‘It would not be much of a universe if it wasn’t home to the people you love’. We’ll miss him forever.”
Astronomer Royal, Lord Professor Martin Rees, said: “His name will live in the annals of science; millions have had their cosmic horizons widened by his best-selling books, and even more, around the world, have been inspired by a unique example of achievement against all odds – a manifestation of amazing will power and determination.”
Prime Minister Theresa May said Hawking had a “brilliant and extraordinary mind,” while First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said he “changed the way we see the universe”. In 1963, Stephen Hawking was told he had two years to live. He was 21 years old and had just been diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a sub-type of motor neurone disease. The disease causes the progressive degeneration and death of the nerve cells that control voluntary muscle movements, such as chewing, walking, talking and breathing.
No-one really knows how Prof Hawking managed to defy the odds and survive with the debilitating condition – also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease – for more than half a century. His age is likely to have made
a difference – the disease is most commonly diagnosed in people aged 55 to 75.
However, what is known for certain is that the progression of the disease varies depending on the person. Although the average life expectancy after a diagnosis of ALS is about three years, about 20 per cent of people live for five years, 10 per cent live ten years and 5 per cent live 20 years or more, after their diagnosis.
One factor that likely plays a role in survival time is genetics. Scientists have identified more than 20 genes involved in ALS, leading some experts to call ALS a group of 20 or more different diseases. Consequently, some of these genetic differences appear to affect various aspects of the disease, including survival. For instance, a gene called SOD1, which is linked with a type of ALS that runs in families, is associated with a more rapid course of the disease.
People with ALS typically die from respiratory failure, which occurs when the nerve cells controlling the breathing muscles stop working, or from malnutrition and dehydration, which can occur when the muscles that control swallowing deteriorate. If someone does not have those two things, you could potentially live for a long time, even though you are getting worse.
Scientists were united in their astonishment at Prof Hawking’s longevity.
“I am not aware of anyone else who has survived with [ALS] as long,” Nigel Leigh, a professor of clinical neurology at King’s College London, told the British Medical Journal in 2002.
“What is unusual is not only the length of time, but that the disease seems to have burnt out. He appears to be relatively stable … This kind of stabilisation is extremely rare.”
The man himself said his work, focused through his disability, granted him years that would not have been available to others. “It has certainly helped that I have a job and that I have been looked after so well,” Prof Hawking told the New York Times in 2011. “I am lucky to be working in theoretical physics, one of the few areas in which disability is not a serious handicap.”
Martin Rees, emeritus professor of cosmology and astrophysics at the University of Cambridge, said: “His name will live in the annals of science; millions have had their cosmic horizons widened by his best-selling books.”