Brief Answers to the Big Questions

Stephen Hawking (1942-2018) was one of the most prominent physicists of the 20th and 21st centuries. His papers on the origin of the universe and on black holes changed science’s views on how reality works. A professor and researcher at Cambridge University for nearly 40 years, Hawking was one of the youngest scientists admitted to the Royal Society, Britain’s premier science academy. He held the Lucasian Chair in mathematics at Cambridge, a position that Sir Isaac Newton once held. In addition, Hawking also had a fruitful working relationship for several decades with the California Institute of Technology in Southern California.

In his adult life, Hawking developed a rare illness, a type of motor neuron disease called Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)—also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease—that gradually paralyzed him. Increasingly dependent on wheelchairs and assistants, Hawking learned to use computers to communicate. He trained himself to do equations in his head by translating them into geometric shapes.

His marriage to Jane Wilde produced three children, including Lucy Hawking, a writer and educator (who wrote the Brief Answers Afterword). The stresses of his illness proved too much, and the marriage dissolved in 1995. He then married one of his caregivers, Elaine Mason, who was accused of taking advantage of him; they divorced in 2006, and he again became close to his original family.

A lifelong atheist and supporter of England’s Labor Party, Hawking believed that humanity was likely to destroy itself through war, environmental catastrophe, or misaligned artificial intelligence—and that colonizing other planets was a chief means of avoiding the worst effects of such disasters. Although he focused on his work and didn’t dwell on his physical limitations, Hawking lent his name and efforts to supporting people with disabilities. He touches on this in Brief Answers.

Best known to general readers for his first book, A Brief History of Time, Hawking also became a celebrity in other media. More than a dozen films have been made about him: The 2014 biopic on his life, The Theory of Everything, was nominated for five Oscars and won Best Actor for Eddie Redmayne, who portrayed Hawking.

Hawking is buried in Westminster Abbey alongside Charles Darwin and Isaac Newton, two other English giants of science.