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Stephen Hawking








Stephen William Hawking was born on January 8, 1942, in Oxford, England.

A theoretical cosmologist - he is considered to be one of the greatest minds of the twentieth century.
He is probably best known for his book “A Brief History of Time
Professor Stephen Hawking

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Stephen Hawking

Further Reading


Books about Hawking -


Stephen Hawking   Kitty Ferguson


Books written by Hawking -


A Brief History of Time - The Hawking classic


A Briefer History of Time


The Universe in a Nutshell



Professor Stephen Hawking's website


Stephen Hawking

Larry King interview with Stephen Hawking

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Top-Down Cosmology


In 2006, working with Thomas Hertog, Hawking proposed a theory of "top-down cosmology." This theory states that the universe had no unique initial state. Instead the universe we live in today arose from a superposition of many possible histories. This makes sense in that the birth of the universe was clearly a quantum event - the initial state was therefore a quantum superposition of states.


The top-down cosmology suggests a possible resolution of the fine-tuning question - this is to say why are the fundamental constants of nature so finely tuned for life? If the current universe "selects" only those past histories that led to the present conditions then this cosmology does away with the extra baggage of multiple universes.

Research Work


Hawking’s main scientific contributions have been in the fields of theoretical cosmology and quantum gravity.

Working with Roger Penrose he was able to show that the mathematical constructions found in the theory of general relativity known as singularities can actually exist in the real world and are known as black holes. They were able to demonstrate that any reasonable classical cosmological solution, must have a singularity in the past.

In 1974 Hawking calculated that black holes emit a form of energy now known as Hawking radiation.


“To confine our attention to terrestrial matters would be to limit the human spirit”


- Stephen Hawking