The Death of Stephen Hawking: Remembering a Legend

Post date: Mar 22, 2018 5:37:3 PM

The Death of Stephen Hawking: Remembering a Legend

By: Molly Wilkinson and Reilly Derrick

            We all know Stephen Hawking for his extraordinary brain, but today, we’d like to dig deeper into his personal story. On March 14th, 2018, Stephen Hawking, at age 76, died of natural causes in Cambridge, United Kingdom in his home. Stephen Hawking was considered by many as the smartest man in the world. Despite his disability, he had many extraordinary accomplishments and became very well known globally.

            We interviewed various Marina students with the following questions surrounding Hawking and his life:

(1) “Did Hawking teach you anything or have any influence on your life?”

(2) “If you had to face Stephen Hawking’s disability, do you think you would continue to work hard and try to accomplish as much as possible?”

            We recorded their responses below:

            (1) “Stephen Hawking taught me even with a disability or differences you can still be and do things for yourself and that you should never lose your faith,” said Sydney Buffen-Bell

(2) “I would continue to work hard because your looks don’t define you,” replied Sadie Brown.

“Yes of course because it would make me a better person and allow me to do things I couldn’t before.” said Allison Bui.

            Hawking was born in 1942 in Oxford and quickly began to excel at well-regarded schools. He attended the University of Oxford, and found the material “ridiculously easy.” Hawking was diagnosed with motor neurone disease at the age of 21, and it gradually paralyzed him. Regardless of this, Stephen went on to study and theorize about black holes, and made the remarkable discovery that they emit radiation, and that they secrete energy and particles into space. He also solved an extremely difficult cosmological problem, the Black Hole Paradox.

            Stephen Hawking was an extraordinary individual that, with his knowledge and intellectual ability, contributed greatly to our world. His achievements in cosmology shaped much of what we currently know and understand about space. He was a legend, one that we all should commemorate for eternity