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berkeman
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I like Hawking's sense of humor, especially in this cameo appearance in Star Trek. I laughed so hard the first time I saw it -- "Wrong again, Albert!" LOL
What would you say his greatest contribution to physics was? The singularity theorems? Hawking radiation?Orodruin said:I think we should also remember how amazing it was that we got to keep him for so long given his illness manifesting itself so early. He was diagnosed in the early 60s, meaning that he lived with ALS for the larger part of his life.
Edit: I also came to think that even if his direct contributions to science are important and numerous. His biggest contribution is probably that of a science educator and inspirer. Imagine how much science is currently being done by people who, like me, were inspired to enter academia after reading his books. I am surely not the only one.
I am not a specialist in his field, but I would go with Hawking radiation. It is a physical effect that is a priori observable (even if too weak to be so for us at the moment). It is the kind of prediction that wins Nobel prizes if confirmed (of course it will not be confirmed any time soon, but just to give a flavour). For me, the singularity theorems, while important for the understanding of GR is not at the same level.Amrator said:What would you say his greatest contribution to physics was? The singularity theorems? Hawking radiation?
Only a few years later, in 1974, Hawking published a seminal paper in which he demonstrates that black holes give off thermal radiation, now referred to as “Hawking radiation.” This evaporation of black holes results in the black hole information loss paradox which is still unsolved today. Hawking’s work demonstrated clearly that the combination of General Relativity with the quantum field theories of the standard model spells trouble. Like the singularity theorems, it’s a result that doesn’t merely indicate, but prove that we need a theory of quantum gravity in order to consistently describe nature.
gabcsika said:I had a bad feeling few months ago when I did not finish to read his PhD thesis. I said 'Oh, I will finish it soon, he is a (forever) living legend, I have time'. That was a blame. This is now sadly actual to finish it reading. I did not want finish his famous thesis to read this way. Really not.
He was a lighthouse in theoretical physics, and will be missing to everyone who wanted to see (a little bit) deeper into the Universe...
Harsha Avinash Tanti said:The greatest mind of our era
In addition, it depends on how you define "era".Vanadium 50 said:I have a hard time with that. Hawking was an excellent scientist, a great popularizer and a sterline role model. He certainly deserves his fame. But "greatest mind of our era"? That's a bit over the top.
I don't have a problems with that. The set is not linearly ordered, so there are more than one greatest element. So "greatest mind of our era" seems fine, but "the greatest mind of our era" is probably inaccurate.Vanadium 50 said:I have a hard time with that. Hawking was an excellent scientist, a great popularizer and a sterling role model. He certainly deserves his fame. But "greatest mind of our era"? That's a bit over the top.
Harsha Avinash Tanti said:The greatest mind of our era.
Vanadium 50 said:I have a hard time with that. Hawking was an excellent scientist, a great popularizer and a sterling role model. He certainly deserves his fame. But "greatest mind of our era"? That's a bit over the top.
Orodruin said:In addition, it depends on how you define "era".
Thus perhaps "One of the greatest minds of the recently modern scientific era" is perhaps more accurate and perhaps kind of necessarily true! ...martinbn said:I don't have a problems with that. The set is not linearly ordered, so there are more than one greatest element. So "greatest mind of our era" seems fine, but "the greatest mind of our era" is probably inaccurate.
Note also:Adam Kohnle said:Although my role model for physics is Albert Einstein, Stephen Hawking is my role model as a person, if that makes sense. Stephen Hawking defied all odds and fought ALS and far surpassed his life expectancy. The fact that he died on Albert Einstein's birthday is truly extraordinary and is an amazing coincidence, especially since both of them are my 2 role models.
(Jan 8)Sorcerer said:Born on Galileo’s death
Ohwilleke already posted this link in this thread:pinball1970 said:I don't get what he did, I only have to read to the number of comments from scientists/students on here that use the phrase " he inspired..."
Amrator said:Ohwilleke already posted this link in this thread:
http://backreaction.blogspot.com/2018/03/stephen-hawking-dies-at-76-what-was-he.html