Stephen Hawking: A Life In Science

Stephen Hawking: A Life In Science – Michael White

Stephen Hawking became one of the most famous scientists in the world, known for his groundbreaking work on black holes and the origins of the universe, his bestselling book A Brief History of Time, and his extraordinary determination in the face of motor neurone disease, which left him almost completely paralyzed. In Stephen Hawking: A Life in Science, science writers Michael White and John Gribbin tell the story of his life and explain his scientific achievements for general readers.

The biography follows Hawking from his childhood in England and his student days at Oxford, where he was a bright but unambitious student, to his graduate work at Cambridge. It describes how, at the age of twenty-one, he was diagnosed with a disease that doctors expected to kill him within a few years, and how, encouraged by his relationship with Jane Wilde, whom he married, he threw himself into his research.

White and Gribbin explain Hawking’s major contributions in clear, accessible language, including his work with Roger Penrose on singularities, which showed that the universe must have begun in a singularity if general relativity is correct, and his discovery that black holes are not completely black but emit radiation, now known as Hawking radiation. They also describe his later work on quantum cosmology and the attempt to understand the beginning of the universe.

The book also explores Hawking’s personal life, his family, his celebrity, the challenges of his illness and the technology that allowed him to communicate.

Engaging and informative, Stephen Hawking: A Life in Science is an excellent introduction for readers curious about the man and his ideas. It was written during his lifetime, and later editions update parts of the story.