R.I.P. Stephen Hawking (1942-2018)
I woke today to the sad news of the death, at the age of 76, of theoretical physicist and cosmologist Stephen Hawking. We all knew he had to pass away one day, but having been diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease and given just a couple of years to live at the age of 22, I think we had all come to regard him as indestructible, so news of his death still came as a shock.
Stephen’s immense contributions to physics, including but not restricted to cosmology, are remarkable in their own right, but made even more remarkable that has done so much after having been stricken by such a debilitating disease when he was only in his twenties. Hawking was undoubtedly a brilliant and inspirational mind, but his courage and physical endurance in the face of difficulties that others might have found unbearable have provided inspiration for many far beyond the field of physics.
To give an example of his scientific work, here is an equation which I think would serve as a memorial to Stephen Hawking as it brings together quantum mechanics, gravity and thermodynamics in giving the entropy of a black hole in terms of its surface area and fundamental constants:
I’ve talked and written quite a lot about Stephen Hawking over the years. In particular I have in the past gone on record, both on television and in print, as being not entirely positive about the `cult’ that surrounds him. I think a number of my colleagues (and some some people at the University of Cambridge) have found things I have said insufficiently reverential or perhaps even disrespectful. This is not the time to go over these things. For the record I’ll just say (yet again) that, while I stand by everything I have said, I do – and always will have – enormous respect for Hawking the physicist, as well as deep admiration for his tenacity and courage.
I may post a longer reflection on Stephen Hawking’s life and work in due course, but for now let me just offer my condolences to his family, friends, and colleagues. He was one of the most celebrated public intellectuals of his day as well as a courageous and determined human being. He is irreplaceable.
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In the Dark 
March 14, 2018 at 11:14 am
As a biomedical scientist I have a much better understanding of the motor neurone disease that Stephen Hawking endured for so long, than the physics and cosmology for which he was famed. But you don’t need to be a physicist or biologist to find him an inspiration, everyone should feel motivated by what he accomplished.
March 14, 2018 at 11:17 am
I know some medical people think that Hawking was actually mis-diagnosed and had some other illness. Any comments on that possibility?
March 14, 2018 at 2:30 pm
As noted below by Philip in the link to the Scientific American article, the disease comes with a wide spectrum of severity. Even so, to reach 76 with this condition is really quite something.
March 14, 2018 at 1:15 pm
Very well-said. He was stunning in what he contributed, but really singular in the resilience it took to do so. But indeed, cults of personality are (by definition) misplaced, and often bad.
One example of his fame is his initials’ usage as an example of spurious features that can be found in the CMB (at a certain, tuned resolution). The equation in this post reminded me of that, when I made out hints of his name (LHS, initial; RHS, if you remove the numbers and put everything on one line, a resemblance to his surname). An ultimate epitaph, a permanent law about a star’s epitaph.
March 14, 2018 at 3:01 pm
A Sad loss of a great mind!!
March 14, 2018 at 4:36 pm
A gift to all of us.
March 15, 2018 at 5:37 am
Does anyone know what he thought of dark matter of dark energy / cosmological constant problem ?
March 15, 2018 at 10:29 am
I remember giving a talk at DAMTP in ~1995 about my paper with George Ellis about the Case for an Open Universe. Hawking was in the audience, and he was firmly of the view that Omega_m=1 and was even prepared to contemplate a very low h. My argument then was that the only the most unreliable observational evidence pointed to a high-density universe. I was told by Martin Rees that our paper 1994 was pushing at an open door, but that definitely wasn’t I found at DAMTP.
March 15, 2018 at 11:22 am
I do remember that talk very well. Hawking was right in the front of the audience, which was quite intimidating. There was plenty of time for questions at the end, and Hawking asked one (about how peculiar velocity measurements of Omega could not involve H_0, which I think I answered to his satisfaction). Then the questions continued. Then suddenly Hawking turned his wheelchair around and left, which was the cue for everyone else to leave too. It was quite an experience.
March 15, 2018 at 11:32 am
ps. Four years later I was a Professor at Nottingham.
March 15, 2018 at 2:23 pm
You got off lightly compared to how Landau treated speakers.
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March 15, 2018 at 5:18 pm
Funniest thing I have seen was the Cavendish Physical Society talk in Cambridge in the late 1990s in which Anthony Lasenby first went public with the Cambridge Gauge Gravity Theory. When questions were taken at the end, Brian Pippard said he didn’t understand something, and Anthony went over the point again with virtually no variation from what he had said during the talk. Then he said to Pippard, “Do you understand now?” This was funny precisely because Anthony was patently being sincere throughout and not playing dirty rhetorical tricks. But it[s one I’ve put in my locker.
March 15, 2018 at 8:51 am
Given that Stephen always made a lot out of being born on the 300th anniversary of Galileo’s death, I am sure he would have chuckled over dying on Einstein’s birthday. (Even if the 139th anniversary of that is not a round number.)
Roy Kerr and I posted our tributes yesterday to https://www.sciencemediacentre.co.nz/2018/03/14/cosmologist-stephen-hawking-dies-age-76-experts-respond/
Raymond Laflamme who was my contemporary in the Cambridge relativity group gave a video tribute here, which I recommend: https://globalnews.ca/video/4083257/stephen-hawking-had-a-great-sense-of-humour-former-student-recalls-hawking-teasing-him
March 15, 2018 at 3:02 pm
Thanks for those links, David (interesting seeing Raymond again). I agree, I think Hawking would have been amused…it was Pie Day as well.
March 15, 2018 at 4:09 pm
I just heard that David Bailin also passed away yesterday. Very sad news.
March 15, 2018 at 5:19 pm
Bailin too? A great shame.
March 15, 2018 at 5:26 pm
Indeed. Great shame. I saw him not long ago too.
March 16, 2018 at 12:05 am
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March 24, 2018 at 8:00 am
[…] R.I.P. Stephen Hawking (1942-2018) I woke today to the sad news of the death, at the age of 76, of theoretical physicist and cosmologist Stephen Hawking. […]
March 24, 2018 at 8:01 am
[…] R.I.P. Stephen Hawking (1942-2018) I woke today to the sad news of the death, at the age of 76, of theoretical physicist and cosmologist Stephen Hawking. […]
May 19, 2018 at 11:23 am
We’re still waiting for Telescoper’s “longer reflections”. The wait has let others get in first crisisinphysics.wordpress.com/?s=hawking
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