stiglitz
Stephen Hawking, the renowned cosmologist of the current age passed away on 14th March 2018, the birthday of Albert Einstein. Hawking was considered and praised as the Einstein of the present age. He waged war bravely against nature and medical predictions almost for major part of his life.
He was diagnosed in his boyhood in 20s for a cruel disease – amyotrophic lateral sclerosis – that would gradually reduce him to paralysis and probably lead to his early death, But he felt satisfied after ensuring from the doctors that there’s no problem to the functioning of his brain due to it. He lived up to 76 years. To the extent Albert Einstein was a great scientist, equally he was concerned about the current affairs in his life with specific interest in the welfare of humans and progress of humanity. Similarly despite being a theoretical physicist, and his bodily disability, he was abled differently to express his ideas on cosmos and universe in a lucid way with witty flavour so that it could be understood even by illiterate listeners. He did not bow down to his biological infirmities but proclaimed himself an atheist, criticising god jocularly but firmly in its denial. When the universe was well explained by him, Hawking used to say, ‘even if anything exists as god, it has to obey the dictum of Law of Physics’. He ridiculed the omnipotent and omnipresent god in nullity.
Hawking in all his deliveries did not miss any opportunity to strengthen his scientific ideas with historical perspective. He calculated the occurrence of ‘Big Bang’ much earlier which led to the formation of creatures in earth. Stephen Hawking’s theory was proved correct in the year 2010. Hawking participated in a conference about universe, convened by the clergies at Vatican and spoke about the growth took place after the occurrence of ‘Big Bang’. Pope, the Pontiff who spoke later pointed that there should not be any experiment to test the veracity of Big Bang. All the formations of creatures in the universe are by the design of god, the Pope said.
Afterwards, Hawking narrated in a jocular way that his explanation was not understood by the Pontiff, Pope. Had he understood the core of his speech, the Pontiff would have ordered the punishment to him, that was ordained to Galileo by the then religious command.
Hawking said he was born exactly 300 years after the birth of Galileo (8th January 1642), the Father of Modern Astronomy.
Physical infirmities and bodily discomforts can not hinder the thinking process and the emerging outcome of it for a person. Stephen Hawking set himself as an example for the constructive contributions to the field of science without losing the hope and simultaneously continuing to proclaim himself as an atheist.
Stephen Hawking left his legacy through his scientific contributions in the publication of the books, authored and co-authored by him.
Authored: A Brief History of Time (1988), Black Holes and Baby Universes and Other Essays (1993), The Universe in a Nutshell (2001), On the Shoulders of Giants (2002), God Created the Integers: The Mathematical Breakthroughs That Changed History (2005), The Dreams That Stuff Is Made of: The Most Astounding Papers of Quantum Physics and How They Shook the Scientific World (2011) and My Brief History (2013)
Co-authored: The Nature of Space and Time (with Roger Penrose) (1996), The Large, the Small and the Human Mind (with Roger Penrose, Abner Shimony and Nancy Cartwright) (1997), The Future of Space time (with Kip Thorne, Igor Novikov, Timothy Ferris and introduction by Alan Lightman, Richard H. Price) (2002), A Briefer History of Time (with Leonard Mlodinow) (2005) and The Grand Design (with Leonard Mlodinow)
Hawking said, “I believe the simplest explanation is, there is no god, No one created the universe and no one directs our fate. This leads to me to a profound realisation that there probably is no heaven and no after life either”
Stephen Hawking is not an individual as scientist but has left behind him a legacy for the posterity. Science’s brightest star has disappeared, leaving an indelible black hole in our hearts!
Salute to Stephen Hawking!
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HEROIC SALUTE
The sad demise of the world renowned scientist Stephen Hawking has shocked the world of scientists as well as the intellectuals. His very life is full of wonders. His life, predicted by the doctors as capable of lasting only for a few months, was prolonged until now, immensely contributing not only to mankind but to scientific research as well. Even while caught in the grip of a strange disease, disabled and confined to the wheel chair, he married, and had a happy married life with children. His longevity and service were concrete proof of the marvellous development of medical sciences.
On the basis of scientific thinking he averred that the earth was not a result of creation but was the product of changes effected by the process of evolution. He started with the statement that the universe was born out a Big Bang and branched out into what it is now. He proclaimed that he was fully convinced that god was an imaginary concept. In collaboration with another researcher he published “The Grand Design”, which proves beyond doubt that belief in god had no scientific basis.
His life of 76 years and the researches he undertook are of great value to the future of science and the scientists. He has taken leave leaving a rich legacy of his life time research.
We offer him our Heroic Salute.
We express our deeply felt condolences to his family and the family of scientists.
K.Veeramani,
President, Dravidar Kazhagam
