Earlier this year, renowned theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking turned 75. Here’s our pick of his career highlights…
1 As a postgraduate student, Hawking began working on cosmic singularities – points in space-time that have zero volume and infinite gravitational strength, predicted to exist according to General Theory of Relativity. Inspired by Roger Penrose’s theory that singularities exist at the centre of black holes, Hawking applied the same concept to the Universe, concluding that it must have started in such a singularity: the Big Bang.
2 In 1974, Hawking published a paper showing that quantum effects around black holes leads them to emit radiation (later dubbed ‘Hawking Radiation’), shrink, and explode. Such radiation or explosions have never been detected, but the theoretical link he demonstrated between thermodynamics, quantum theory and gravity is still being explored, and may well be crucial to an ultimate theory of everything.
Denne historien er fra August 2017-utgaven av BBC Earth.
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Denne historien er fra August 2017-utgaven av BBC Earth.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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