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- AuthorSasha Blakeley
Sasha Blakeley has a Bachelor's in English Literature from McGill University and a TEFL certification. She has been teaching English in Canada and Taiwan for seven years.
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Elizabeth, a Licensed Massage Therapist, has a Master's in Zoology from North Carolina State, one in GIS from Florida State University, and a Bachelor's in Biology from Eastern Michigan University. She has taught college level Physical Science and Biology.
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Read an author's biography on Stephen Hawking. Explore a summary and learn about the concept of his best-selling novel, A Brief History of Time, and its editions.Updated: 11/21/2023
Table of Contents
- Stephen Hawking Author Biography
- A Brief History of Time Summary and Concept
- A Brief History of Time Media Adaptions
- Lesson Summary
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the main idea of "A Brief History of Time"?
A Brief History of Time covers many topics in theoretical physics, including the Big Bang, black holes, particle physics, and the fate of the universe. It does so in an attempt to bring physics to more readers.
Why did Stephen Hawking write "A Brief History of Time"?
Stephen Hawking wrote A Brief History of Time because he wanted more people to understand and appreciate theoretical physics. He wrote the book intending to make these complex concepts comprehensible to people who had not studied physics.
Table of Contents
- Stephen Hawking Author Biography
- A Brief History of Time Summary and Concept
- A Brief History of Time Media Adaptions
- Lesson Summary
Stephen Hawking was a renowned English theoretical physicist who made several major contributions to the field of physics throughout his illustrious career. He was born in 1942 and studied physics at Oxford and Cambridge in the 1960s. In 1965, Hawking married Jane Wilde, with whom he had three children.
In the 1960s, Hawking contracted the degenerative neuromuscular condition called amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, which is commonly known as ALS, motor neuron disease, or Lou Gehrig's disease. It gradually reduced Hawking's mobility throughout the rest of his life. He continued to work as a physicist after the onset of his disease, focusing on general relativity and black holes while also working on the Big Bang theory and quantum mechanics.
His ALS progressed during his adult life, and Hawking relied on assistive technology to speak. He retained mobility in some of the muscles in his cheek, and an infrared sensor mounted on his glasses would detect his cheek movements. This allowed him to select letters and words using a moving cursor that scanned across a keyboard, and a computer spoke these words. Hawking became nearly as famous for his experiences with ALS as his extraordinary work in physics. In 1990, Hawking split up with his first wife and married Elaine Mason, one of his nurses. Their relationship ended in 2006. Hawking co-authored a series of science-based novels for children with Lucy, his daughter.
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One of Stephen Hawking's most famous works was A Brief History of Time, a book intended to explain complex physics concepts to an audience without a background in physics. The text was a great success and is one of Hawking's most widely known contributions to science and literature, although he also published many other works.
Hawking received numerous honors over his lifetime; he was Cambridge's Lucasian professorship of mathematics, and he was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE). He also received a U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom and a Copley Medal from the Royal Society. Hawking died in 2018 due to complications from ALS. His doctors did not expect him to live so long with the disease: he was 76. His remains were interred at Westminster Abbey, next to the graves of Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin.
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Stephen Hawkings' book A Brief History of Time was published in 1988. It aimed to make complex concepts in theoretical physics accessible to a layman's audience. The book was a great success, guiding readers through topics like the Big Bang, the fabric of time and space, particle physics, black holes, and more.
It is a non-fiction book that takes care not to use technical terms without first explaining them. A simple summary of A Brief History of Time goes all the way from the beginning of the universe to its end, explaining things like space and time, the expanding universe, the uncertainty principle, black holes, wormholes, and time travel along the way. It sold over 25 million copies.
Additional Editions of A Brief History of Time
After the success of Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time, the book received some additional editions to keep up with the changing world of physics. The first of these, published in 1996, was The Illustrated A Brief History of Time. It was an updated and expanded edition that included illustrations and numerous changes that reflected the new research of physicists, including Hawking. The book contains over 240 images, including illustrations, photographs from the Hubble Space Telescope, satellite images, and computer-generated renderings of the universe.
In 2006, Hawking created an even more accessible version of the book in collaboration with writer Leonard Mlodinow entitled A Briefer History of Time. The purpose of the text was to further simplify the physics concepts in the original book while also providing further updates based on new research in the field of physics. Despite A Brief History of Time's success, some readers did note that even the supposedly accessible wording Hawking used was in many cases obscure, hence the need for a new edition with both clearer language and new updates.
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There have been a few adaptations of Hawking's A Brief History of Time since the book was originally published. In 1991, the text was adapted into a documentary. The film does tackle many of the physics concepts presented in the book, but it also serves as a biographical film about Hawking's life and accomplishments. Errol Morris directed this film, and it features music by Philip Glass. The film received primarily positive reviews even though it was not as detailed in the realm of explanations about physics as Hawking's initial book had been.
More recently, the Metropolitan Opera spent some time working to adapt A Brief History of Time into opera form; unfortunately, it never completed the opera. Much of what people know about it takes the form of rumors.
In recent decades, there has been increased interest in Stephen Hawking's life, and he became the subject of two cinematic biographical dramatizations. The first of these was Hawking, produced in 2004, which focused on Hawking's early life and the onset of his ALS. In 2014, The Theory of Everything was released, a complete biopic of Hawking. Cast members from both films attended Hawking's funeral at Westminster Abbey.
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Stephen Hawking was an English physicist who made significant advances in the field of theoretical physics throughout his lifetime. In the 1960s, he was diagnosed with ALS, a degenerative muscular condition that continued to impact him for the remainder of his life. Hawking studied the Big Bang and was especially famous for his work on theories about black holes. As Hawking's ALS progressed, he began to use a computer to speak. Infrared sensors in his glasses tracked the movement of muscles in his cheek, allowing him to select words and letters using a moving cursor which a computer would then translate into speech.
Hawking was interested in bringing some of the complex topics in his research to a wider audience who might not have studied physics in the past. In the interest of achieving this goal, Stephen Hawking published A Brief History of Time in 1988. The text approaches major concepts in physics from an accessible point of view, eschewing technical terms where possible. The book became extremely popular for its ability to bring physics to the everyday reader. The book received two updates: The Illustrated A Brief History of Time and A Briefer History of Time. These both added new information about physics and attempted to make the text easier to understand.
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Additional Info
A Simpler Explanation
The concepts of space and cosmology are not easy to grasp. They involve complex physics, math, and a fairly deep understanding of the universe and everything in it. Black holes, gravity, light, the big bang theory, and an ever-expanding and infinite space are not delicate topics that just anyone can understand by picking up a book.
Unless you pick up a book called A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking. Written in 1988 by arguably one of the most influential theoretical physicists in history, A Brief History of Time works to explain these difficult subjects in ways that any reader can understand. Since then there have been two additional versions printed: the Illustrated A Brief History of Time and A Briefer History of Time.
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In the book, Hawking covers the history of physics, space and time, the expanding universe, the uncertainty principle, elementary particles and forces of nature, black holes, and the origin and fate of the universe. He explains these concepts with minimal jargon, only one equation, and with an incredible ability to describe complex and obscure topics in language that is easy to understand. Despite his level of knowledge, Hawking was, though this book, able to bring some of the most important and fascinating concepts to millions of readers, many of whom probably never before dreamed they'd be able to read and understand a book on theoretical physics!
About the Author
Stephen Hawking was born in Oxford, England in 1942. Hawking's brilliance in physics and math was apparent early on, and he has developed many cosmological theories, both independently and in collaboration with other scientists. He has received numerous awards including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which is the highest civilian honor in the U.S.
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Hawking also has a rare disease that was both early-onset and slow-progressing. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as ALS and Lou Gehrig's disease, occurs in fewer than 20,000 people per year. There is no treatment for the disease. It leads to progressive muscle weakness as nerve cells break down and loss of motor functionality. Hawking has lost so much of his muscle strength that he is relegated to a motorized wheelchair.
He also uses some pretty amazing technology to 'speak', and he might be as famous for this as he is for his brilliance. Mounted on his wheelchair arm is a computer that does the talking for him since he is no longer able to speak himself. Here's how it works:
A cursor scans across a keyboard by row or column. He selects a character by moving his cheek, which stops the cursor on that character. An infrared switch mounted on his glasses detects the cheek movements, and much like our smartphones predict the word we want to type based on our first few letters, Hawking's computer is programmed to predict his words, giving him a selection to choose from. Once he gets an entire sentence together he sends it off to his speech synthesizer, which 'talks' in a computerized voice, relaying Hawking's text.
What's really cool is that he can also control a mouse through this technology. This means he can work on a computer, check and send email, surf the web, write lectures and presentations, and even like stuff on Facebook if he feels like doing so! Hawking hasn't let any of his setbacks keep him from doing and dreaming about big things. He has three children and three grandchildren that keep him busy, and travels often to give lectures. In fact, he still hopes to travel into space one day!
Lesson Summary
A Brief History of Time is a modern classic written by theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking. This ground-breaking book took the complex topics of space, time, and cosmology, and made them accessible to the everyday reader. Through his vast knowledge and easy to understand language, Hawking brought the topics of outer space down to us here on Earth, providing readers the opportunity to learn about a topic they might not otherwise experience.
Early in his life Hawking was diagnosed with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), which is a disease that affects muscle strength and function. Despite this major setback, Hawking continues to study physics and math, write books and essays, travel, lecture, spend time with his family, and even hopes to make it into space one day.
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