I would often be acting
as an interpreter,
so Stephen would say something
and if the person he was speaking to
couldn't understand,
I would then repeat it.
STEPHEN'. Although I was becoming
increasingly trapped
inside my dysfunctioning body,
fortunately my mind was unaffected.
I had a new big question
I felt compelled to find the answer to.
My reputation in the field of black holes
was established
as we entered a golden age.
But my next discovery
would throw
all of cosmologists' findings to date
up in the air.
The calculations I was working on
in valved what happened to particles
on the edge of a black hole
that were sucked in and disappeared.
To my great surprise,
I found that some particles
could escape the black hole,
which seemed to make a mockery
of the known laws of physics.
At first, I thought
this must be a mistake.
BERNARD: I do remember
when he was working on this problem
and, indeed, I even remember
when he told me he was working out
the quantum effects of these black holes
and he seemed to be getting
this flux of particles coming out.
When Stephen's
thinking about a problem
he will become
obviously obsessed with it.
JANE: It was a very intense period.
It was when he could be surrounded
by children
and not notice what was going on,
because he was like Rodin's Thinker
with his head in his hands,
often accompanied by Wagner
blaring out from the loudspeakers.
(OPERA MUSIC PLAYS)
It used to drive me spare!
STEPHEN: Finally, after months
of exhaustive work,
I found what I was looking for.
Contrary to all previously held theories
on black holes,
I discovered
that they must emit particles,
like a hot body losing heat.
This "evaporation" meant, in theory,
a black hole could eventually
disappear.
I announced my findings
on St Valentine's Day in 1974
at a cosmology conference in Oxford,
to a packed audience.
JANE: He came to an end.
And there was absolute silence
in the lecture hall...
...and I can see it now -
the chairman of the lecture
jumped to his feet
and instead of saying,
"Oh, I must thank Professor Hawking
for his remarkable lecture,"
he said, "This is preposterous!
I have never heard anything like it!"
The whole place was abuzz.
People couldn't believe
what they had heard.
STEPHEN: My controversial discovery
initially shocked
the world of physics...
...but eventually it became accepted
and known as Hawking radiation.
I am proud to have discovered it.
BERNARD: This was a remarkably important
result because it was a result which...
unified relativity theory
and quantum theory and thermodynamics.
And physics is really
all about unifying ideas.
These three subjects
seemed to be brought together
and this was the first time we'd seen
that kind of unification.
BERNARD: Every now and then in physics,
you get a result which is...
it's so beautiful, it really is
like rolling candy on the tongue.
JANE: Oh, I was enormously proud...
enormously proud
of what Stephen had achieved.
STEPH EN: After! announced my theory
of Hawking radiation
and a later discovery
of exploding black holes,
a procession of international awards
followed.
In the spring of 1974,
I was inducted into the Royal Society,
one of the most prestigious
bodies of scientists.
My name now sat alongside
Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin.
A year later, I received
the Gold Medal for Science,
from Pope Paul VI.
Aged 32, I was thrilled to have
such high-profile awards to my name
and exciting new opportunities beckoned.
