An invention that changed the course of human history – the man who made scientists idols

No scientist has had such an unfortunate experience as him, but his astrophysics research is one of the most successful after Einstein. Although he suffers from diseases, no scientist is as "sought after" as he is, and it is he who makes scientists an idol.

On the eve of the 2002 International Mathematical Congress, at the Pudong International Airport in Shanghai, China, many people were eagerly greeting a man who was not a singer or a movie star, but he made scientists an idol. When he was slowly pushed off the plane in a wheelchair, people were so excited that they went up to him to present flowers and compete to take photos with him. The person in the wheelchair seemed to be very tired, but from his thin face, people still saw his imperceptible smile. He is the famous British scientist and modern outstanding popular science novelist Stephen Hawking.

Stephen Hawking is considered "the world's most famous scientific thinker and most prominent theoretical physicist after Einstein."

After graduating from Oxford University, he transferred to Cambridge University to pursue a doctoral study in cosmology. Shortly after he graduated, however, he was diagnosed with Lugaret's disease, a condition that causes muscle atrophy. Hawking was great, and although he knew he was seriously ill, he did not give up his ideals in life, and in the 1970s, he proved the famous strangeness theorem in the face of illness, and won the Wolf Prize in Physics in 1988.

He also made astonishing achievements in cosmology, proving that the area of black holes does not decrease over time, and that the temperature of black hole radiation is related to its mass.

In the 1990s, when his illness was already worsening, he began to study the quantum universe and so on, and also achieved remarkable achievements, and is considered to be the most accomplished person in quantum after Einstein.

While carrying out arduous scientific research, he wrote many popular science works. His 1988 book A Brief History of Time, which was well received by readers, has so far circulated 25 million copies and has been translated into 40 languages.

In modern society, especially in the West, people who have not read A Brief History of Time will even be considered uneducated. In early 2002, Hawking's other book, The Universe in the Shell, was published in both China and Europe in Chinese and English, and quickly sold well.

The erudite Hawking quotes Shakespeare's classic line in Hamlet in the title: "Even if you keep me in a fruit shell, you still think you are the king of infinite space." Now this line is familiar to everyone.

Hawking fell ill after graduation, and he was unfortunate, but his scientific achievements were made when he was ill. With his strong will and optimistic spirit, he overcame the disease.

When he began studying quantum cosmology in the 1980s, his shrinking body began to suffer from total paralysis, his body could not move, and he had to rely on a wheelchair to replace his feet. Later he got another pneumonia, he underwent tracheal surgery, and he could no longer speak. A person who can't move or speak, he relies on a wheelchair to move himself, relies on the computer in the wheelchair to work, his voice is sent by the computer in front of him and the language synthesizer customized for him, and his reading needs help in front of him.

However, it is such a seriously ill person who has achieved so much, which really makes us proud of him, and he is indeed an "idol" in our study and life.

Suffering from illness is unfortunate, but illness does not necessarily prevent people from realizing the beautiful ideals in their hearts, nor is it necessarily an obstacle to people's success, such as Hawking is the best example. So when we encounter setbacks or pain, think of our idol, Hawking, and we have the motivation to move forward.