Understanding nature’s secrets and laws seems to be a huge undertaking that requires a brilliant mind, such as that of Galileo Galilei, who observed the moon’s craters and Jupiter’s four moons through his telescopes.
By
NINOK LEKSONO
·6 minutes read
AP Photo/Invision/Joel Ryan
In this March 30, 2015 file photo, Professor Stephen Hawking arrives for the Interstellar Live show at the Royal Albert Hall in central London. Hawking, whose brilliant mind ranged across time and space though his body was paralyzed by disease, has died, a family spokesman said early Wednesday, March 14, 2018.
“It would not be much of a universe if it wasn’t home to the people you love.” (Stephen Hawking, as quoted in a statement by his family in announcing the renowned scientist’s death, ABC7news, KHA, March 14)
Understanding nature’s secrets and laws seems to be a huge undertaking that requires a brilliant mind, such as that of Galileo Galilei, who observed the moon’s craters and Jupiter’s four moons through his telescopes. And then there was Isaac Newton who discovered gravity (IS Glass, Revolutionaries of the Cosmos). Jumping ahead to the 20th century, the world of science, especially physics, witnessed how a genius named Albert Einstein gave birth to the Theory of Relativity (Special in 1905 and General in 1916).
Afterward, there were the giants of quantum physics, including Erwin Schrodinger and Werner Heisenberg. There was also John Wheeler in cosmology. However, at least in the past 50 years, one star in science burnt the brightest, especially in (theoretical) physics and cosmology. The name of the star was Stephen William Hawking, who died on Wednesday.
Hawking’s departure reminded people all over the world about his scientific work and achievements. Theoretical physics and cosmology are indeed two of the highest realms in science. Operating on extraordinarily complex mathematics, Hawking -- much like Newton and Einstein before him -- successfully discovered knowledge in the deepest and most mysterious parts of the universe.
One of the most phenomenal mysteries in physics and cosmology - which deals with the past and the future of the universe -- is the black hole, which has a gravitational pull so powerful that nothing, not even light, can escape it. Essentially, black holes are part of space completely cut-off from everything else.
Ideas of black holes attracted Hawking’s attention and, with his colleague -- Roger Penrose -- at Cambridge University, he did numerous researches on them. At the end of the 1960s, the two scientists found out that, if Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity is correct, then the collapse of gravity would lead to a “singularity” hidden inside a black hole.
In 1973, Hawking revised his black hole theory when he discovered that not all black holes were completely black as some particles could escape their gravitational field. Some form of energy can get away from the black holes’ terrifyingly powerful gravity. This was later known as the Hawking Radiation (The Universe, A Biography, John Gribbin).
Through his work, Hawking has not only encouraged more discourses on black holes. More than that, he has revived a long-gestating scientific dream of a singular theory that combines all physics laws in a unified field theory. Einstein dreamt about this but could not discover it. Hawking’s work suggests a unity of three areas in physics believed to be completely separate from one another, namely gravity, quantum physics and thermodynamics.
REUTERS/Alfred Cheng Jin
Stephen Hawking in Beijing June 21, 2006.
Grand design
Hawking, recognized by many as the most brilliant physicist in history after Einstein, was also known as a humanist with a strong sense of humor. He is also known as the writer of several critically acclaimed books on popular science.
Despite his physical limitations, he served as an ambassador of science. He held lectures all over the world and answered various questions on time travel and life outside Earth.
Hawking also proposed a possible future for humanity. Borrowing a thesis by the late Alvin Toffler on the waves of civilization, a logical Fourth Wave (after previous “waves” of agriculture, industrialization and information) for humanity will be space colonies. This is based on the idea that life on Earth is becoming increasingly unsustainable due to global warming and climate change.
Implicit in this statement is a series of questions he proposed in his 2010 book The Grand Design, which he wrote with Leonard Mlodinow. Other than asking when and how did the universe begin, Hawking also asked why do we exist and why are nature’s laws arranged so neatly to enable an existence such as ours?”
His ultimate question was whether or not such a concrete grand design served as proof of the existence of a singular good-willed Creator? Or can science offer another explanation?
Meaningful
Hawking has left us but his legacy remains. He believed that there are no miracles in the universe as everything is regulated by nature’s laws. However, it was his own life that was a miracle. After he was diagnosed with ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), a degeneration of motor neurons, at 21 years old, his doctors predicted that he would only live for two more years. He beat these odds and lived for 50 more years.
Hawking spent part of his life in the spotlight but he remained a true physicist until the end. His mind raced while he was sitting in his wheelchair. His brains thought hard of highly complex mathematical equations that he would dictate to his secretary or colleagues. These questions flowed like the symphonies in the minds of Mozart or Beethoven.
New Scientist’s Stuart Clark said Hawking ordered that the Bekenstein-Hawking Equation be engraved on his tombstone. (Jacob Bekenstein was the student of physicist John Wheeler who served as Hawking’s partner in solving the problem of connecting black holes to the second law of thermodynamics.)
If black holes and theoretical physics remain too sophisticated for the laymen, Hawking himself was a memorable figure for many, both from his popular science books and due to his colorful life. As actor Eddie Redmayne, who portrayed Hawking in the Oscar-winning film The Theory of Everything, said, Hawking was “a truly beautiful mind, an astonishing scientist and the funniest man I have ever had the pleasure to meet”.
As the Earth and mankind are surrounded by problems that must be urgently solved, Hawking has left us all a legacy of ideas about the cosmos and visions of mankind’s future.
The thing that the youth of Indonesia must take in about Hawking’s death was his love and devotion to scientific ideas. This is a relevant message for a time when many are worrying about their decreasing interest in science.
