What Is Stephen Hawking A Modern Day Hero?

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“Sometimes I wonder if I'm as famous for my wheelchair and disabilities as I am for my discoveries.” This is just one of the many quotes said by Stephen Hawking. Stephen Hawking was born on January 8th, 1942. He is a British scientist who has done groundbreaking work in physics and cosmology. He is also an author as well as a professor at Cambridge who has written at least 131 books, the most famous of those are on the topic of black holes and general relativity. He was diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease) at the age of 21, and doctors gave him two or three years to live, but he is still alive today at the age of 75. In that span of time he has overcome the hindrance of his disease and physical disability to become one of the most influential physicists since Albert Einstein, and he’s also vastly expanded the knowledge available to everybody through seminars, lectures, and books. For these reasons, he qualifies as a modern-day hero. …show more content…

According to him, he had a dream one night that made him realize that there were many things that he still wanted to do with his life. At one point he even said “Before my condition was diagnosed, I had been bored with life.” With the sudden realization that he might not live long enough to even earn his PhD, Hawking poured himself into his research. Through his research he has become a well known author, publishing many novels and research papers benefiting both the general public as well as scientists around the world. As if being a physicist, author, and public speaker with ALS wasn’t difficult enough he also has a family. He was married twice and has a total of 3 kids. Hawking said that his first marriage was the turning point in his life at a time when he was unsure as to what the point of a degree was if he was going to die soon. It was at this turning point in his life when he decided to take control of his disease rather than let it control

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