"I want a report that I think I have
solved a major problem in theoretical physics."
Professor Stephen Hawking was a brilliant physicist and
pioneer of black hole theory,
but he gained his greatest fame as a
popularizer of science.
He wrote a brief history of time
to explain complex cosmological theories to a lay audience.
It became a best-seller,
though it's been jokingly called
"the most unread bestseller ever published".
As a young student at Oxford University,
Hawking was not a hard worker,
his grades weren't outstanding,
but his one time tutor said that during Hawking's final
examination,
his examiners realized that he was cleverer than they.
The first symptoms of the motor neuron disease,
that would eventually rob Hawking of his
physical abilities,
appeared while he was a postgraduate student at Cambridge.
He was told then he wouldn't survive more than a few years.
"Before my condition had been diagnosed,
I had been very bored with life,
but shortly after I came out of hospital,
I dreamt that I was going to be executed.
I suddenly realized that there were a lot of worthwhile things I I got to,
if I were reprieved."
Professor Hawking began using his electronic voice synthesizer in 1985
when a tracheotomy cost him his remaining ability to speak.
He never wanted to change to a more
natural voice when the technology improved.
The robotic American accent was
instantly recognizable as his.
"The Zero-G part was wonderful,
I could have gone
on and on.
Space here I come!"
Professor Hawking never made it into space,
but the asteroid that bears his name,
7672-Hawking,
is tracing a path in
the cosmos.
