Hawking showed that if they exist, radiation will cause them to evaporate and ultimately explode. (The best candidate for a black hole is the invisible part of a binary star system in the constellation of Cygnus, the swan.) Hawking’s major contribution to black hole theory was showing that as a star’s matter falls into a black hole, quantum interactions must occur and particles escape in what is known as “Hawking radiation.” As the title of a chapter indicates, ‘black holes ain’t so black.’ Mini–black holes are tiny structures that may have formed in great numbers after the big bang. Although there is yet no decisive evidence that black holes exist, most cosmologists now are convinced that they do. “Hawking devotes two chapters to black holes. Hawking’s prose is as informal and clear as his topics are profound. Warned that every equation would cut sales in half, he has left out all formulas except Einstein’s famous E = mc2, which he hopes will not frighten half his readers. At a Chicago discotheque he once wheeled onto the floor and spun his chair in time to the music.Ī Brief History of Time is Hawking’s first popularly written book. He has visited the United States some thirty times, Moscow seven times, and flown around the world. He has a devoted wife and three children. Because the synthesizer was made in California, he apologizes to strangers for his American accent. He speaks by way of a computer and speech synthesizer attached to his wheelchair. He has chosen a profession in which he can work entirely inside his head, and his disability has freed him from numerous academic chores.Ī tracheostomy made necessary by a pneumonia attack in 1985 has silenced his voice. Hawking actually sees himself as fortunate. Lou Gehrig’s disease may be gnawing away at his body, but it has left his mind intact. He is already a legend, not just because of his brilliant contributions to theoretical physics, but also for his courage, optimism, and humor in the face of a crippling illness. Few living physicists could occupy this chair more deservedly, even though, as many by now know, Hawking has for two decades been confined to a wheelchair. “Hawking, age forty-four, is the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge University, a chair held by Isaac Newton and Paul Dirac.

Turtles on the way down