Stephen Hawking Research Paper

Stephen Hawking
Stephen Hawking was born on January 8th 1942, in Oxford, England. As a young boy he was active and healthy. Hawking was considered an average student in elementary school (Simon11,12), except for in his math classes (Simon 18). But Stephen was always curious (he always took radios and clocks apart), “I always wanted to know how everything worked,” explained Hawking (Simon 12). Later in his life, Stephen was diagnosed with ALS, “... a severe and crippling disease. (Simon 9)” He can’t talk or move because his muscles don’t work. But, “his very active mind is filled with incredible knowledge about the universe. (Simon 9)” Even though Stephen Hawking has had ALS for over 50 years, is confined to a wheelchair, and can only …show more content…
When Stephen Hawking was 14 years old, he knew that he was going to be a mathematician or a physicist when he was older. Sheridan Simon, the person who wrote Unlocking the universe, explains that, “Mathematicians study symbols such as numbers, and the rules that they follow under different circumstances. Physicist, on the other hand, use mathematical symbols to study real things such as matter and energy, and how they interact. (Simon 20)” Eventually he became a theoretical physicist, “[A] scientist who uses mathematical models to explain how the natural world works. (Venezia 32)” Stephen’s father, Frank Hawking (a doctor and scientist (Senker 12), influenced him in being a scientist and encouraged his son to go to Cambridge University (Simon 13). Stephen did go to Cambridge and got a PhD in Cosmology, which the glossary of Stephen Hawking, Unlocking the Universe, defines as “the study of the origin, evolution, and fate of the universe (Simon 105).” When Stephen was 21 and studying for his PhD, he started tripping, falling, and slurring his speech …show more content…
For example, he needed to dictate his work that he was teaching or researching and then his assistant would write it out (Senker 34). Back when he was a kid, before being diagnosed with ALS, Hawking didn’t speak clearly. He spit out his ideas without organizing them, and they didn’t make any sense to his friends. These friends called his language “Hawkingese” (Simon 16). To make matters worse, in 1985 he had an emergency operation called a tracheotomy, which made him lose his voice completely (Venezia 25). Because Professor Hawking could no longer communicate using his voice, Walt Woltosz created a programmed voice synthesizer through a computer (Venezia 26). This program works by sensing his facial movement and converts them into words. Stephen still uses the program today

Show More