ACTIVITY #6

Stephen Hawking (8 January 1942 – 14 March 2018)

He is an english physicist, cosmologist and author
who contributed astounding discoveries in science.
He was diagnosed with ALS or Amyotrophic Lateral
Sclerosis at the age of 21, where he lost control of his
muscles.

Stephen Hawking and his works

Some of his works include:

1. The discovery of singularity. Stephen Hawking did
path-breaking work on singularities and applied it for whole Universe and told that
gravitation produces singularities. He also told that Einstein's theory predicted a singularity
which was the big bang theory.

2.He also discovered the law of black hole mechanics. His first law states that the total
surface area of the black hole will never get smaller. It is also known as the Hawking area
theorem. Another law states that black holes were hot. But it is a contradiction of classical
physics which states that black holes don't radiate heat. Black holes emit radiation, which
may continue till they exhaust their energy and evaporate. This is also known as Hawking
radiation.

3. In January 1971, he won the prestigious Gravity Research foundation Award for his
essay titled "Black Holes".

4. Cosmic Inflation Theory -, Hawking was one of the first who calculate quantum
fluctuations which means the small variations in the distribution of matter and shows that
during inflation it might give rise to the spread of galaxies in the Universe.
5. Model on the wave function of the Universe This theory states that time did not exist
before the big bang explosion and hence the concept of the beginning of the universe is
meaningless. The Universe does not have any initial boundaries in time or space.

5. He wrote the famous book "A Brief History of Time" In this book he explains about the
range of subjects in cosmology like big bang, black holes, light cones etc. This book
became the bestselling book that breaks the record of 237 weeks and appeared on the
British Sunday Times best-seller list.

6. Top-Down Theory on Cosmology Along with Thomas Hertog, he proposed a theory

"top-down cosmology" in 2006 which states that the Universe had not one unique initial
state but consisted of a superposition of many possible initial conditions. Several other
books were also published like The Universe in a Nutshell (2001), God Created the
Integers: The Mathematical Breakthroughs That Changed History (2005) etc.

How Stephen Hawking viewed the human brain

According to Stephen Hawking, “ I think the brain is like a program in the mind, which is like
a computer. So theoretically it’s possible to copy the brain onto a computer and so provide a
form of life after death.”

In other words, Stephen Hawking viewed the brain as something that functions like a
computer that has neural networks. Similar to the computer, our brain has patterns and
algorithms similar to a computer program. He believes that one day it is possible for our
brains to exist outside the body with the help of technology in the future.

News clip source:

Youtube Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqfSPx6snOE
TItle: Stephen Hawking: Brains Copied To Computers? - Huff Post Live