![]() Black holes are thus not totally black after all, and some stuff escapes from them from time to time. He is perhaps most famous for applying quantum physics to black holes and concluding that some “radiation” would slowly escape black holes, making them “evaporate” over very long periods of time. ![]() He was an exceptionally brilliant and original scientist he was afflicted by a debilitating disease that gradually destroyed his body and he had a uniquely upbeat personality in his interaction with high-level scientists as well as with students, the media, and the general public.Īs a scientist, Hawking dived into the two most fascinating fields of astrophysics - the origin of the universe, and black holes sometimes he even combined the two, as when he inferred the existence of primordial black holes from the early times of the universe, tiny objects that would evaporate and ultimately release huge amounts of energy. What made Hawking such a fascinating and loved figure? A set of factors, each one extraordinary in its own right, combined in this man in an unprecedented way. In 1988, when Carl Sagan, a cultural icon himself, wrote the preface to Hawking’s book “A Brief History of Time,” he referred to him as “a legend” and that was well before the book sold 10 million copies and was translated into more than 40 languages. Even among scientists, he held a special place. For many years now, if anyone were asked to name a famous living scientist, Hawking’s name would have come to most minds. ![]() Long before he died, Stephen Hawking had become a cultural icon much more than a scientific celebrity. ![]()
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