STEPHEN HAWKING: A SYMBOL OF POWER OF MIND By KAMAL JAIN

A big salutation on behalf of whole humanity to great astrophysicist Stephen Hawking for
his wonderful spirit, and willpower with which he was able to defy death for almost 50
years to continue exploring cosmos and unravel the mysteries of universe from his
wheelchair till his recent death at the age of 76 years.
Really he is one who would remain the symbol of power of colossal mind and shine as
star for ever for his pioneer work and achievements in cosmology despite his debilitating
disease known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and against all odds. Throughout his life,
he was only able to communicate using a single cheek muscle attached to a speech-
generating device. His courage and persistence with his brilliance and humour inspired
people across the world.
His major contribution was to make complex theories and concepts of universe and
cosmos more accessible and understandable to masses in lay man language. He had the
spirit and unbounded pursuit to gain a complete understanding of universe. More than
that he was always keen to connect with common men by sharing the understanding
about such complex issues in simple and lucid style. He brought the topics of universe,
black holes, space-time and future of planet etc., into the consciousness of public.
Despite being a theoretical astrophysicist and great cosmologist, he was natural and
gifted communicator who on one hand tackled the most difficult and perplexing topics in
technical sense and on other hand explained them to lay audience in simple words. It is
of course a quite unusual for a scientist of his stature.
Hawking attempted to combine relativity and gravity with quantum physics to provide a
better understanding of various phenomena in the universe. This led to many dramatic
predictions – for example, that black holes could emit some radiation, and given enough
time, even “evaporate” or disappear – with mind-boggling consequences.
He developed no boundary theory along with James Hartle and described how the
universe does not have a boundary and came into existence through the Big Bang. He
had believed that there was more than one universe. The theory suggested that other
Big Bangs took place and produced an infinite number of universes to be referred as
multiverse.
Stephen Hawking was popular for his studies on space but he cared even more about on
earth. In his later years, he expressed his concerns and wrote not just about cosmology
and astrophysics, but also about the future of humanity on a politically, socially and
environmentally fragile planet at risk from global warming, nuclear war or other
disasters like epidemic diseases, acidification of oceans, climate change etc.
He once said,” we now have the technology to destroy the planet on which we live but
have not yet developed the ability to escape it. Perhaps in a few hundred years, we will
have established human colonies amid the stars, but right now we only have one planet,
and we need to work together to protect it.”
Two weeks before his death, Stephen Hawking predicted ‘the end of the universe’ in his
final work- titled ‘A Smooth Exit From Eternal Inflation’ co-authored with Thomas
Hertog- a physicist from Belgium. This research work talks of how our universe would
eventually fade into darkness as the stars run out of energy. Understandably, the paper
got a lot of attention in view of the fact that Hawking had been working on it just before

his death. Some scientists are of the view that it could be a breakthrough in field of
cosmology.
Stephen Hawking won accolades from his peers for having one of the most brilliant minds in
science and some scientists are of the view that he deserved Noble prize which he could not get
because any of his theories has not experimentally been tested and proved so far. Never the less,
his life journey and work in the field of astrophysics and cosmology is larger than Noble Prize.