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Jan. 8, 1942: Birthday of a First-Rate Mind, and a Medical Marvel
By Tony Long 01.08.08 | 12:00 AM


Stephen Hawking (center) experiences the thrill of zero gravity on a flight aboard a modified Boeing 727 aircraft, owned by Zero Gravity.
Image: NASA 1942: British physicist Stephen Hawking is born.

Hawking was born in Oxford (his website notes, in an interesting historical aside, that his birth coincides with the 300th anniversary of Galileo's death), where his parents moved to escape the German Blitz on London.

Naturally predisposed to mathematics, young Hawking switched to physics because University College at Oxford did not offer the discipline. He turned out to be pretty good at physics, too. From there, Hawking moved on to Cambridge to do his research in cosmology.

It was while attending Cambridge that he developed the first signs of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, the incurable neurological disease that, defying all odds, Hawking has managed to live with for more than four decades. The average ALS patient dies within a few years of diagnosis.

In fact, Hawking has done far more than simply "live with ALS." Almost willfully ignoring his disability, which leaves him wheelchair-bound, paralyzed and unable to speak, Hawking has carved out a brilliant career as a theoretical physicist specializing in the study of the universe.

His best-seller on the subject, A Brief History of Time, helped raise public consciousness regarding the nature of the universe, its possible beginnings and its probable end.

The very slow progression of Hawking's disease remains a mystery. A special computer rigged to his wheelchair and operated by a "blink switch" attached to his glasses gives him a limited self-sufficiency, although he still requires around-the-clock nursing care.

In April 2007, Hawking realized his dream of making a zero-gravity flight, making him the first quadriplegic ever to do so. He's scheduled for a sub-orbital spaceflight in 2009.

(Source: Hawking.org)