Stephen Hawking: A Biography by Kristine Larsen January 15, 2008
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Stephen Hawking is one of the most recognizeable icons of modern science in general as cosmology in particular. Stephen Hawking: A Biography explores Hawkings life from his early childhood through to his present day exploits. Those such as myself who have successfully read a Brief History of Time from cover to cover (I love the title: it flies against everything they tell you in writing when they state “don’t let your topic be too broad!”) and saw the Errol Morris documentary of the same name will find this book as an update of sorts for the last decade. Many of the legendary Hawking anecdotes, such as his birth 300 years after the death of Galileo and his bets with cosmologist Kip Thorne are given new treatment. Ideas first introduced in A Brief History of Time such as Hawking radiation and imaginary time are also expanded upon.
Particularly poigniant are the tribulations of the Hawking family and Stephen himself as he battles Lou Gehrigs’ or Motor Neuron Disease. Its sobering to think that Hawking may not have applied himself to such monumental questions of cosmology were it not for his disability. Stephen himself has always down played the role of his affliction, always noting those who are more unfortunate than he.
His eventual rise to the status of pop icon must seem as much a paradox to him as space time itself. Mentioned are two memorable appearances on the Simpsons (one in which Hawking finds Homer’s concept of a dounut shaped universe as “intriguing…”) and an unforgetable segment of Star Trek: the Next Generation playing a holographic image of himself.
But in the end, it’s all about the science and theories Hawking has put forth. Few remember that until relatively recently, black holes were entirely thoeritical, and the upstart Big Bang theory vied for acceptance with the generally accepted Steady State theory. Hawking notes that he almost ended up in Fred Hoyles’ Steady State camp himself! Until the 1960’s almost no observational evidence existed to support either model. Even now, such probes as COBE (Cosmic Background Explorer) and WMAP (the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe) are only just now revealing evidence to support the early history of the universe embedded in the cosmic microwave background.
But even in such a speculative field as Cosmology, it’s proved nearly impossible for Hawking to avoid the realms of philosophy and religon. Rather than ignoring them, Hawking manages to acknowledge the far reaching implications cosmology may have for our own existence. Hawking even touches on the hotly debated “Anthropic Principle” dismissed by many scientists as dangerously homo-sapien centered. It is especially tantilizing that the very physical perameters of the universe seem to be “fine tuned” so that elements, stars, and eventually planets with life that can ponder all of this eventually arise. Of course, planetary scientist Carl Sagan points out that the universe we observe isn’t exactly teeming with life. I would place a small bet that this may be a result of the multitude of possible universes that can exist, but of course there is no observational evidence for this (yet!). But that’s a whole other blog…
Another famous discovery is the fact that black holes do slowly radiate. Dubbed “Hawking radiation”, quantum physics does allow black holes to slowly deteriorate. The rate, Hawking discovered, is dependent on the mass of the black hole. Large, multi-thousand mass galactic monstrosities say, take longer to evaporate than small primordial mass black holes.
All in all, this biography makes a good companion book to his other popular works, and serves well as an update on the Hawking universe. Hey, now that Sagan is gone, he’s the closest thing the field of Astronomy has to a rock star! I for one, look forward to his 2009 trip into space with Virgin Galactic…
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