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Sunday, August 17, 2014

Jane Goodall

Jane Goodall

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dame Jane Goodall
DBE
Jane Goodall HK.jpg
Born 3 April 1934 (age 80)
London, United Kingdom
Alma mater Newnham College, Cambridge
Darwin College, Cambridge
Doctoral advisor Robert Hinde
Known for Study of chimpanzees, conservation, animal welfare
Notable awards Kyoto Prize (1990)
Hubbard Medal (1995)
Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement (1997)
DBE (2004)

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from the BBC programme Woman's Hour, 26 January 2010[1]
Dame Jane Morris Goodall, DBE (/ˈɡʊdˌɔːl/; born Valerie Jane Morris-Goodall on 3 April 1934)[2] is a British primatologist, ethologist, anthropologist, and UN Messenger of Peace.[3]
Considered to be the world's foremost expert on chimpanzees, Goodall is best known for her 45-year study of social and family interactions of wild chimpanzees in Gombe Stream National Park, Tanzania.[4] She is the founder of the Jane Goodall Institute and the Roots & Shoots program, and she has worked extensively on conservation and animal welfare issues. She has served on the board of the Nonhuman Rights Project since its founding in 1996.[5][6]

Early years

Jane Goodall was born in London, England, in 1934 to Mortimer Herbert Morris-Goodall, a businessman, and Margaret Myfanwe Joseph, a novelist who wrote under the name Vanne Morris-Goodall.[2] As a child, she was given a lifelike chimpanzee toy named Jubilee by her father; her fondness for the toy started her early love of animals. Today, the toy still sits on her dresser in London. As she writes in her book, Reason for Hope: "My mother's friends were horrified by this toy, thinking it would frighten me and give me nightmares."[7] Goodall has a sister, Judith, who shares the same birthday, though the two were born four years apart.

Africa

Goodall had always been passionate about animals and Africa, which brought her to the farm of a friend in the Kenya highlands in 1957.[8] From there, she obtained work as a secretary, and acting on her friend's advice, she telephoned Louis Leakey, a Kenyan archaeologist and palaeontologist, with no other thought than to make an appointment to discuss animals. Leakey, believing that the study of existing great apes could provide indications of the behaviour of early hominids,[9] was looking for a chimpanzee researcher, though he kept the idea to himself. Instead, he proposed that Goodall work for him as a secretary. After obtaining his wife Mary Leakey's approval, Louis sent Goodall to Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania, where he laid out his plans.

In 1958, Leakey sent Goodall to London to study primate behaviour with Osman Hill and primate anatomy with John Napier.[10] Leakey raised funds, and on 14 July 1960, Goodall went to Gombe Stream National Park, becoming the first of what would come to be called The Trimates.[11] She was accompanied by her mother, whose presence was necessary to satisfy the requirements of David Anstey, chief warden, who was concerned for their safety; Tanzania was "Tanganyika" at that time and a British protectorate.[8]

Leakey arranged funding and in 1962, he sent Goodall, who had no degree, to Cambridge University where she obtained a Ph.D degree in Ethology.[8][12] She became only the eighth person to be allowed to study for a Ph.D there without first obtaining a BA or B.Sc.[2] Her thesis was completed in 1965 under the tutorship of Robert Hinde, former master of St. John's College, Cambridge, titled "Behaviour of the Free-Ranging Chimpanzee," detailing her first five years of study at the Gombe Reserve.[2][12]

Personal life

Goodall has been married twice. On 28 March 1964, she married a Dutch nobleman, wildlife photographer Baron Hugo van Lawick, at Chelsea Old Church, London, and she became known during their marriage as Baroness Jane van Lawick-Goodall. The couple had a son, Hugo Eric Louis (born 1967); they divorced in 1974. The following year, she married Derek Bryceson (a member of Tanzania's parliament and the director of that country's national parks); he died of cancer in October 1980.[13] With his position in the Tanzanian government as head of the country's national park system, Bryceson was able to protect Goodall's research project and implement an embargo on tourism at Gombe while he was alive.[13]

Goodall has on different occasions expressed belief in, or at least fascination with, Sasquatch, Yeti, or Bigfoot.[14]

When asked if she believed in God, Goodall said in September 2010: "I don't have any idea of who or what God is. But I do believe in some great spiritual power. I feel it particularly when I’m out in nature. It’s just something that's bigger and stronger than what I am or what anybody is. I feel it. And it's enough for me."[15]

Work

Research at Gombe Stream National Park

Jane in conversation with Silver Donald Cameron discussing her work.
Goodall at the University of Hong Kong in 2006

Goodall is best known for her study of chimpanzee social and family life. She began studying the Kasakela chimpanzee community in Gombe Stream National Park, Tanzania, in 1960.[16] Without collegiate training directing her research, Goodall observed things that strict scientific doctrines may have overlooked.[17] Instead of numbering the chimpanzees she observed, she gave them names such as Fifi and David Greybeard, and observed them to have unique and individual personalities, an unconventional idea at the time.[17] She found that, “it isn’t only human beings who have personality, who are capable of rational thought [and] emotions like joy and sorrow.”[17] She also observed behaviours such as hugs, kisses, pats on the back, and even tickling, what we consider "human" actions.[17] Goodall insists that these gestures are evidence of "the close, supportive, affectionate bonds that develop between family members and other individuals within a community, which can persist throughout a life span of more than 50 years."[17] These findings suggest that similarities between humans and chimpanzees exist in more than genes alone, but can be seen in emotion, intelligence, and family and social relationships.

Goodall’s research at Gombe Stream is best known to the scientific community for challenging two long-standing beliefs of the day: that only humans could construct and use tools, and that chimpanzees were vegetarians.[17] While observing one chimpanzee feeding at a termite mound, she watched him repeatedly place stalks of grass into termite holes, then remove them from the hole covered with clinging termites, effectively “fishing” for termites.[18] The chimps would also take twigs from trees and strip off the leaves to make the twig more effective, a form of object modification which is the rudimentary beginnings of toolmaking.[18] Humans had long distinguished ourselves from the rest of the animal kingdom as "Man the Toolmaker". In response to Goodall's revolutionary findings, Louis Leakey wrote, "We must now redefine man, redefine tool, or accept chimpanzees as human!".[18][19][20]

In contrast to the peaceful and affectionate behaviours she observed, Goodall also found an aggressive side of chimpanzee nature at Gombe Stream. She discovered that chimps will systematically hunt and eat smaller primates such as colobus monkeys.[17] Goodall watched a hunting group isolate a colobus monkey high in a tree, block all possible exits, then one chimpanzee climbed up and captured and killed the colobus.[20] The others then each took parts of the carcass, sharing with other members of the troop in response to begging behaviours.[20] The chimps at Gombe kill and eat as much as one-third of the colobus population in the park each year.[17] This alone was a major scientific find which challenged previous conceptions of chimpanzee diet and behaviour.

But perhaps more startling, and disturbing, was the tendency for aggression and violence within chimpanzee troops. Goodall observed dominant females deliberately killing the young of other females in the troop in order to maintain their dominance,[17] sometimes going as far as cannibalism.[18] She says of this revelation, "During the first ten years of the study I had believed […] that the Gombe chimpanzees were, for the most part, rather nicer than human beings. […] Then suddenly we found that chimpanzees could be brutal—that they, like us, had a darker side to their nature."[18] She described the 1974-1978 Gombe Chimpanzee War in her memoir, Through a Window: My Thirty Years with the Chimpanzees of Gombe. Her findings revolutionized contemporary knowledge of chimpanzee behaviour, and were further evidence of the social similarities between humans and chimpanzees, albeit in a much darker manner.

Goodall also set herself apart from the traditional conventions of the time by naming the animals in her studies of primates, instead of assigning each a number. Numbering was a nearly universal practice at the time, and thought to be important in the removal of one's self from the potential for emotional attachment to the subject being studied. Setting herself apart from other researchers also led her to develop a close bond with the chimpanzees and to become, to this day, the only human ever accepted into chimpanzee society. She was the lowest ranking member of a troop for a period of 22 months. Among those that Goodall named during her years in Gombe were:[21]
  • David Greybeard, a grey-chinned male who first warmed up to Goodall;[22]
  • Goliath, a friend of David Greybeard, originally the alpha male named for his bold nature;
  • Mike, who through his cunning and improvisation displaced Goliath as the alpha male;
  • Humphrey, a big, strong, bullysome male;
  • Gigi, a large, sterile female who delighted in being the "aunt" of any young chimps or humans;
  • Mr. McGregor, a belligerent older male;
  • Flo, a motherly, high-ranking female with a bulbous nose and ragged ears, and her children; Figan, Faben, Freud, Fifi, and Flint;[23][24]
  • Frodo, Fifi's second oldest child, an aggressive male who would frequently attack Jane, and ultimately forced her to leave the troop when he became alpha male.[25]

Jane Goodall Institute

Jane Goodall in 2009 with Hungarian Roots & Shoots group members.

In 1977, Goodall established the Jane Goodall Institute (JGI), which supports the Gombe research, and she is a global leader in the effort to protect chimpanzees and their habitats. With nineteen offices around the world, the JGI is widely recognized for innovative, community-centred conservation and development programs in Africa. Its global youth program, Roots & Shoots began in 1991 when a group of 16 local teenagers met with Goodall on her back porch in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. They were eager to discuss a range of problems they knew about from first-hand experience that caused them deep concern. The organisation now has over 10,000 groups in over 100 countries.[26]
Goodall in 2009 with Lou Perrotti, who contributed to her book, Hope for Animals and Their World.

Due to an overflow of handwritten notes, photographs, and data piling up at Jane's home in Dar es Salaam in the mid-1990s, the Jane Goodall Institute’s Center for Primate Studies was created at the University of Minnesota to house and organize this data. Currently all of the original Jane Goodall archives reside there and have been digitized and analyzed and placed in an online database.[27] On March 17, 2011, Duke University spokesman Karl Bates announced that the archives will move to Duke, with Anne E. Pusey, Duke's chairman of evolutionary anthropology, overseeing the collection. Pusey, who managed the archives in Minnesota and worked with Goodall in Tanzania, had worked at Duke for a year.[28]

Today, Goodall devotes virtually all of her time to advocacy on behalf of chimpanzees and the environment, travelling nearly 300 days a year.[29] Goodall is also a board member for the world's largest chimpanzee sanctuary outside of Africa, Save the Chimps in Fort Pierce, Florida.

Activism

Goodall with Allyson Reed of Skulls Unlimited International, at the Association of Zoos and Aquariums annual conference, 9, 2009.

Goodall is the former president of Advocates for Animals, an organization based in Edinburgh, Scotland, that campaigns against the use of animals in medical research, zoos, farming and sport.
Goodall is a devoted vegetarian and advocates the diet for ethical, environmental, and health reasons. In The Inner World of Farm Animals, Goodall writes that farm animals are "far more aware and intelligent than we ever imagined and, despite having been bred as domestic slaves, they are individual beings in their own right. As such, they deserve our respect. And our help. Who will plead for them if we are silent?”[30] Goodall has also said, “Thousands of people who say they 'love' animals sit down once or twice a day to enjoy the flesh of creatures who have been treated so with little respect and kindness just to make more meat."

In April 2008, Goodall gave a lecture entitled "Reason for Hope" at the University of San Diego's Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace & Justice Distinguished Lecture Series.
In May 2008, Goodall controversially described Edinburgh Zoo's new primate enclosure as a "wonderful facility" where monkeys "are probably better off [than those] living in the wild in an area like Budongo, where one in six gets caught in a wire snare, and countries like Congo, where chimpanzees, monkeys and gorillas are shot for food commercially."[31] This was in conflict with
Advocates for Animals' position on captive animals.[32] In June 2008 Goodall confirmed that she had resigned the presidency of the organisation which she had held since 1998, citing her busy schedule and explaining, "I just don't have time for them."[33]

Goodall is a patron of population concern charity Population Matters,[34] and is currently an ambassador for Disneynature.[35]

In 2011, Goodall became a patron of Australian animal protection group Voiceless, the animal protection institute. "I have for decades been concerned about factory farming, in part because of the tremendous harm inflicted on the environment, but also because of the shocking ongoing cruelty perpetuated on millions of sentient beings."[36]

In 2012 Goodall took on the role of challenger for the Engage in Conservation Challenge with the DO School, formerly known as the D&F Academy.[37] She worked with a group of aspiring social entrepreneurs to create a workshop to engage young people in conserving biodiversity, and to tackle a perceived global lack of awareness of the issue.[38]

Criticism

Goodall at TEDGlobal 2007

Some primatologists have suggested flaws in Goodall's methodology which may call into question the validity of her observations. Goodall used unconventional practices in her study, for example, naming individuals instead of numbering them. At the time numbering was used to prevent emotional attachment and loss of objectivity. Claiming to see individuality and emotion in chimpanzees, she was accused of "that worst of ethological sins,"[39] anthropomorphism.

Many standard methods are aimed at helping observers to avoid interference and the use of feeding stations to attract Gombe chimpanzees is, in particular, thought by some to have altered normal foraging and feeding patterns as well as social relationships; this argument is the focus of a book published by Margaret Power in 1991.[40] It has been suggested that higher levels of aggression and conflict with other chimpanzee groups in the area were consequences of the feeding, which could have created the "wars" between chimpanzee social groups described by Goodall, aspects of which she did not witness in the years before artificial feeding began at Gombe. Thus, some regard Goodall's observations as distortions of normal chimpanzee behaviour.[41] Goodall herself acknowledged that feeding contributed to aggression within and between groups, but maintained that the effect was limited to alteration of the intensity and not the nature of chimpanzee conflict, and further suggested that feeding was necessary for the study to be effective at all. Craig Stanford of the Jane Goodall Research Institute at the University of Southern California asserts that researchers conducting studies with no artificial provisioning have a difficult time viewing any social behaviours of chimpanzees at all, especially those related to intergroup conflict.[42]

Some recent studies such as those by Crickette Sanz in the Goualougo Triangle (Congo) and Christophe Boesch in the Taï National Park (Côte d'Ivoire) have not shown the aggression observed in the Gombe studies.[43] However, not all primatologists agree that the studies are flawed; for example, Jim Moore provides a critique of Margaret Powers' assertions[44] and some studies of other chimpanzee groups have shown similar aggression to Gombe even in the absence of feeding.[45]

On 22 March 2013, Hachette Book Group announced that Goodall's and co-author Gail Hudson's new book, Seeds of Hope, would not be released on 2 April as planned due to the discovery of plagiarized portions.[46] A reviewer for the Washington Post found unattributed sections lifted from websites about organic tea, tobacco, and "an amateurish astrology site," as well as from Wikipedia.[47] Goodall apologized and stated, "It is important to me that the proper sources are credited, and I will be working diligently with my team to address all areas of concern. My goal is to ensure that when this book is released it is not only up to the highest of standards, but also that the focus be on the crucial messages it conveys."[48]

In popular culture

David Greybeard Sculpture at Disney's Animal Kingdom
  • In The Simpsons episode "Simpson Safari", Dr. Joan Bushwell, a character loosely based on Goodall,[49] is a research scientist in charge of a chimpanzee refuge who is secretly forcing her chimps to mine diamonds for her benefit.
  • On her album Street Angel, Stevie Nicks pays tribute to Goodall with the track "Jane".
  • A parody of Goodall appears in the webcomic, Irregular Webcomic![50] as a foil to Steve, himself a parody of Steve Irwin. She would later appear as herself interacting with the comic's writer, David Morgan-Mar.[51]
  • She is included in the Symphony of Science video The Unbroken Thread.[52]
  • She was featured in Apple's "Think Different" campaign.
  • Goodall voiced herself in an episode of The Wild Thornberrys in which she and Eliza save animals from poachers.

Gary Larson cartoon incident

One of cartoonist Gary Larson's more famous cartoons shows two chimpanzees grooming. One finds a blonde human hair on the other and inquires, "Conducting a little more 'research' with that Jane Goodall tramp?" Goodall herself was in Africa at the time, and the Jane Goodall Institute thought this was in bad taste, and had their lawyers draft a letter to Larson and his distribution syndicate, in which they described the cartoon as an "atrocity." They were stymied by Goodall herself when she returned and saw the cartoon, as she stated that she found the cartoon amusing.[53] Since then, all profits from sales of a shirt featuring this cartoon go to the Jane Goodall Institute. Goodall wrote a preface to The Far Side Gallery 5, detailing her version of the controversy, and the Institute's letter was included next to the cartoon in the complete Far Side collection.[54] She praised Larson's creative ideas, which often compare and contrast the behaviour of humans and animals. In 1988, Larson visited Gombe.[53]

Awards and recognition

Honours

Goodall teaching about wetlands in Martha's Vineyard, USA, 2006

Goodall has received many honours for her environmental and humanitarian work, as well as others. She was named a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in a ceremony held in Buckingham Palace in 2004.[55] In April 2002, Secretary-General Kofi Annan named Goodall a United Nations Messenger of Peace. Her other honors include the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement, the French Legion of Honor, Medal of Tanzania, Japan's prestigious Kyoto Prize, the Benjamin Franklin Medal in Life Science, the Gandhi-King Award for Nonviolence and the Spanish Prince of Asturias Awards. She is also a member of the advisory board of BBC Wildlife magazine and a patron of Population Matters (formerly the Optimum Population Trust). She has received many tributes, honors, and awards from local governments, schools, institutions, and charities around the world. Goodall is honored by The Walt Disney Company with a plaque on the Tree of Life at Walt Disney World's Animal Kingdom theme park, alongside a carving of her beloved David Greybeard, the original chimpanzee which approached Goodall during her first year at Gombe.[56] In 2010 Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds held a benefit concert at DAR Constitution Hall in Washington DC to commemorate Gombe 50: a global celebration of Jane Goodall’s pioneering chimpanzee research and inspiring vision for our future.[57]

Awards

  • 1980: Order of the Golden Ark, World Wildlife Award for Conservation
  • 1984: J. Paul Getty Wildlife Conservation Prize
  • 1985: Living Legacy Award from the International Women's League
  • 1985:Society of the United States; Award for Humane Excellence, American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
  • 1987: Ian Biggs' Prize
  • 1989: Encyclopædia Britannica Award for Excellence on the Dissemination of Learning for the Benefit of Mankind; Anthropologist of the Year Award
  • 1990: The AMES Award, American Anthropologist Association; Whooping Crane Conservation Award, Conoco, Inc.; Gold Medal of the Society of Women Geographers; Inamori Foundation Award; Washoe Award; The Kyoto Prize in Basic Science
  • 1991: The Edinburgh Medal
  • 1993: Rainforest Alliance Champion Award
  • 1994: Chester Zoo Diamond Jubilee Medal
  • 1995: Commander of the Order of the British Empire, presented by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II; The National Geographic Society Hubbard Medal for Distinction in Exploration, Discovery, and Research; Lifetime Achievement Award, In Defense of Animals; The Moody Gardens Environmental Award; Honorary Wardenship of Uganda National Parks
  • 1996: The Zoological Society of London Silver Medal; The Tanzanian Kilimanjaro Medal; The Primate Society of Great Britain Conservation Award; The Caring Institute Award; The Polar Bear Award; William Procter Prize for Scientific Achievement
  • 1997: John & Alice Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement; David S. Ingells, Jr. Award for Excellence; Common Wealth Award for Public Service; The Field Museum's Award of Merit; Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement; Royal Geographical Society / Discovery Channel Europe Award for A Lifetime of Discovery
  • 1998: Disney's Animal Kingdom Eco Hero Award; National Science Board Public Service Award; The Orion Society's John Hay Award
  • 1999: International Peace Award; Botanical Research Institute of Texas International Award of Excellence in Conservation, Community of Christ International Peace Award
Tournament of Roses Parade Grand Marshal Dr. Jane Goodall, 11th female Grand Marshal, at Tournament House, 2012

Media

Books

  • 1969 My Friends the Wild Chimpanzees Washington, DC: National Geographic Society
  • 1971 Innocent Killers (with H. van Lawick). Boston: Houghton Mifflin; London: Collins.
  • 1971 In the Shadow of Man Boston: Houghton Mifflin; London: Collins. Published in 48 languages.
  • 1986 The Chimpanzees of Gombe: Patterns of Behavior Boston: Bellknap Press of the Harvard University Press. Published also in Japanese and Russian. R.R. Hawkins Award for the Outstanding Technical, Scientific or Medical book of 1986, to Bellknap Press of Harvard University Press, Boston. The Wildlife Society (USA) Award for "Outstanding Publication in Wildlife Ecology and Management".
  • 1990 Through a Window: 30 years observing the Gombe chimpanzees London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson; Boston: Houghton Mifflin. Translated into more than 15 languages. 1991 Penguin edition, UK. American Library Association "Best" list among Nine Notable Books (Nonfiction) for 1991.
  • 1991 Visions of Caliban (co-authored with Dale Peterson, Ph.D.). Boston: Houghton Mifflin. New York Times "Notable Book" for 1993. Library Journal "Best Sci-Tech Book" for 1993.
  • 1999 Brutal Kinship (with Michael Nichols). New York: Aperture Foundation.
  • 1999 Reason For Hope; A Spiritual Journey (with Phillip Berman). New York: Warner Books, Inc. Translated into Japanese and Portuguese.
  • 2000 40 Years At Gombe New York: Stewart, Tabori, and Chang.
  • 2000 Africa In My Blood (edited by Dale Peterson). New York: Houghton Mifflin Company.
  • 2001 Beyond Innocence: An Autobiography in Letters, the later years (edited by Dale Peterson). New York: Houghton Mifflin Company. ISBN 0-618-12520-5 Online version
  • 2002 The Ten Trusts: What We Must Do To Care for the Animals We Love (with Marc Bekoff). San Francisco: Harper San Francisco
  • 2005 Harvest for Hope: A Guide to Mindful Eating New York: Warner Books, Inc. ISBN 0-446-53362-9
  • 2009 Hope for Animals and Their World: How Endangered Species Are Being Rescued from the Brink Grand Central Publishing ISBN 0-446-58177-1
  • 2013 Seeds of Hope: Wisdom and Wonder from the World of Plants (with Gail Hudson) Grand Central Publishing ISBN 1-455-51322-9

Children's books

  • 1972 Grub: The Bush Baby (with H. van Lawick). Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
  • 1988 My Life with the Chimpanzees New York: Byron Preiss Visual Publications, Inc. Translated into French, Japanese and Chinese. Parenting's Reading-Magic Award for "Outstanding Book for Children," 1989.
  • 1989 The Chimpanzee Family Book Saxonville, MA: Picture Book Studio; Munich: Neugebauer Press; London: Picture Book Studio. Translated into more than 15 languages, including Japanese and Swahili. The UNICEF Award for the best children's book of 1989. Austrian state prize for best children's book of 1990.
  • 1989 Jane Goodall's Animal World: Chimps New York: Macmillan.
  • 1989 Animal Family Series: Chimpanzee Family; Lion Family; Elephant Family; Zebra Family; Giraffe Family; Baboon Family; Hyena Family; Wildebeest Family Toronto: Madison Marketing Ltd.
  • 1994 With Love New York / London: North-South Books. Translated into German, French, Italian, and Japanese.
  • 1999 Dr. White (illustrated by Julie Litty). New York: North-South Books.
  • 2000 The Eagle & the Wren (illustrated by Alexander Reichstein). New York: North-South Books.
  • 2001 Chimpanzees I Love: Saving Their World and Ours New York: Scholastic Press
  • 2002 (Foreword) "Slowly, Slowly, Slowly," Said the Sloth by Eric Carle. Philomel Books
  • 2004 Rickie and Henri: A True Story (with Alan Marks) Penguin Young Readers Group

Films

  • 1963 Miss Goodall and the Wild Chimpanzees National Geographic Society
  • 1975 Miss Goodall: The Hyena Story The World of Animal Behavior Series 16mm 1979 version for DiscoVision, not released for LaserDisc
  • 1984 Among the Wild Chimpanzees National Geographic Special
  • 1988 People of the Forest with Hugo van Lawick
  • 1990 Chimpanzee Alert in the Nature Watch Series, Central Television
  • 1990 The Life and Legend of Jane Goodall National Geographic Society.
  • 1990 The Gombe Chimpanzees Bavarian Television
  • 1995 Fifi's Boys for the Natural World series for the BBC
  • 1996 Chimpanzee Diary for BBC2 Animal Zone
  • 1997 Animal Minds for BBC
  • Goodall voiced herself in the animated TV series The Wild Thornberrys.
  • 2000 Jane Goodall: Reason For Hope PBS special produced by KTCA
  • 2001 Chimps R Us, on season 11 , episode 8 of Scientific American Frontiers.
  • 2002 Jane Goodall's Wild Chimpanzees (IMAX format), in collaboration with Science North
  • 2005 Jane Goodall's Return to Gombe for Animal Planet
  • 2006 Chimps, So Like Us HBO film nominated for 1990 Academy Award
  • 2007 When Animals Talk We Should Listen theatrical documentary feature co-produced by Animal Planet
  • 2010 Jane's Journey theatrical documentary feature co-produced by Animal Planet
  • 2012 Chimpanzee theatrical nature documentary feature co-produced by Disneynature
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Stephen Hawking

Stephen Hawking

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 
Stephen Hawking
CH CBE FRS FRSA
black and white photo of Hawking in a chair, in an office.
Hawking at NASA, 1980s
Born Stephen William Hawking
8 January 1942 (age 72)
Oxford, England
Residence United Kingdom
Fields
Institutions
Alma mater
Thesis Properties of Expanding Universes (1965)
Doctoral advisor Dennis Sciama[2]
Other academic advisors Robert Berman[citation needed]
Doctoral students
Known for
Notable awards
Spouse
  • Jane Wilde
    (m. 1965–1995, divorced)
  • Elaine Mason
    (m. 1995–2006, divorced)
Children
  • Robert (b. 1967)
  • Lucy (b. 1970)
  • Timothy (b. 1979)
Website
www.hawking.org.uk

Stephen William Hawking CH CBE FRS FRSA (Listeni/ˈstiːvən ˈhɔːkɪŋ/; born 8 January 1942) is an English theoretical physicist, cosmologist, author and Director of Research at the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology within the University of Cambridge.[14][15] Among his significant scientific works have been a collaboration with Roger Penrose on gravitational singularity theorems in the framework of general relativity, and the theoretical prediction that black holes emit radiation, often called Hawking radiation. Hawking was the first to set forth a cosmology explained by a union of the general theory of relativity and quantum mechanics. He is a vocal supporter of the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics.[16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25]

Hawking is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a lifetime member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, and a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the United States. Hawking was the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge between 1979 and 2009.

Hawking has achieved success with works of popular science in which he discusses his own theories and cosmology in general; his A Brief History of Time stayed on the British Sunday Times best-sellers list for a record-breaking 237 weeks.

Hawking has a motor neuron disease related to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a condition that has progressed over the years. He is almost entirely paralysed and communicates through a speech generating device. He married twice and has three children.

Early life

Stephen Hawking was born on 8 January 1942[1] to Frank and Isobel Hawking.[26][27] Despite their families' financial constraints, both parents attended the University of Oxford, where Frank studied medicine and Isobel, Philosophy, Politics and Economics.[27] The two met shortly after the beginning of the Second World War at a medical research institute where she was working as a secretary and he as a medical researcher.[27][28] They lived in Highgate, but as London was under attack in those years, his mother went to Oxford to give birth in greater safety.[29] Stephen has two younger sisters, Philippa and Mary, and an adopted brother, Edward.[30] He began his schooling at the Byron House School; he later blamed its "progressive methods" for his failure to learn to read while at the school.[31]

In 1950, when his father became head of the division of parasitology at the National Institute for Medical Research, Hawking and his family moved to St Albans, Hertfordshire.[31][32] The eight-year-old Hawking attended St Albans High School for Girls for a few months; at that time, younger boys could attend one of the houses.[33][34] In St Albans, the family were considered highly intelligent and somewhat eccentric;[31][35] meals were often spent with each person silently reading a book.[31] They lived a frugal existence in a large, cluttered, and poorly maintained house, and travelled in a converted London taxicab.[36][37] During one of Hawking's father's frequent absences working in Africa,[38] the rest of the family spent four months in Majorca visiting his mother's friend Beryl and her husband, the poet Robert Graves.[33]

On their return to England, Hawking attended Radlett School for a year[34] and from September 1952, St Albans School.[39] The family placed a high value on education.[31] Hawking's father wanted his son to attend the well-regarded Westminster School, but the 13-year-old Hawking was ill on the day of the scholarship examination. His family could not afford the school fees without the financial aid of a scholarship, so Hawking remained at St Albans.[40][41] A positive consequence was that Hawking remained with a close group of friends with whom he enjoyed board games, the manufacture of fireworks, model aeroplanes and boats,[42] and long discussions about Christianity and extrasensory perception.[43] From 1958, and with the help of the mathematics teacher Dikran Tahta, they built a computer from clock parts, an old telephone switchboard and other recycled components.[44][45] Although at school he was known as "Einstein," Hawking was not initially successful academically.[46] With time, he began to show considerable aptitude for scientific subjects, and inspired by Tahta, decided to study mathematics at university.[47][48][49] Hawking's father advised him to study medicine, concerned that there were few jobs for mathematics graduates.[50] He wanted Hawking to attend University College, Oxford, his own alma mater. As it was not possible to read mathematics there at the time, Hawking decided to study physics and chemistry. Despite his headmaster's advice to wait until the next year, Hawking was awarded a scholarship after taking the examinations in March 1959.[51][52]

University

Hawking began his university education at the University of Oxford in October 1959 at the age of 17.[53] For the first 18 months, he was bored and lonely: he was younger than many other students, and found the academic work "ridiculously easy."[54][55] His physics tutor Robert Berman later said, "It was only necessary for him to know that something could be done, and he could do it without looking to see how other people did it."[56] A change occurred during his second and third year when, according to Berman, Hawking made more effort "to be one of the boys". He developed into a popular, lively and witty college member, interested in classical music and science fiction.[53] Part of the transformation resulted from his decision to join the college Boat Club, where he coxed a rowing team.[57][58] The rowing trainer at the time noted that Hawking cultivated a daredevil image, steering his crew on risky courses that led to damaged boats.[59][57] Hawking has estimated that he studied about 1,000 hours during his three years at Oxford. These unimpressive study habits made sitting his Finals a challenge, and he decided to answer only theoretical physics questions rather than those requiring factual knowledge. A first-class honours degree was a condition of acceptance for his planned graduate study in cosmology at the University of Cambridge.[60][61] Anxious, he slept poorly the night before the examinations and the final result was on the borderline between first- and second-class honours, making a viva necessary.[61][62] Hawking was concerned that he was viewed as a lazy and difficult student, so when asked at the oral examination to describe his future plans, he said, "If you award me a First, I will go to Cambridge. If I receive a Second, I shall stay in Oxford, so I expect you will give me a First."[61][63] He was held in higher regard than he believed: as Berman commented, the examiners "were intelligent enough to realise they were talking to someone far cleverer than most of themselves."[61] After receiving a first-class BA (Hons.) degree, and following a trip to Iran with a friend, he began his graduate work at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, in October 1962.[64][65]

Hawking's first year as a doctoral student[12] was difficult. He was initially disappointed to find that he had been assigned Dennis William Sciama as a supervisor rather than Fred Hoyle,[66][67] and he found his training in mathematics inadequate for work in general relativity and cosmology.[68] He also struggled with his health. Hawking had experienced increasing clumsiness during his final year at Oxford, including a fall on some stairs and difficulties when rowing.[69][70] The problems worsened, and his speech became slightly slurred; his family noticed the changes when he returned home for Christmas and medical investigations were begun.[71][72] The diagnosis of motor neurone disease came when Hawking was 21. At the time, doctors gave him a life expectancy of two years.[73][74] After his diagnosis, Hawking fell into a depression; though his doctors advised that he continue with his studies, he felt there was little point.[75] At the same time, however, his relationship with Jane Wilde, friend of his sister, and whom he had met shortly before his diagnosis, continued to develop. The couple were engaged in October 1964.[76][77] Hawking later said that the engagement "gave him something to live for."[78] Despite the disease's progression—Hawking had difficulty walking without support, and his speech was almost unintelligible—he now returned to his work with enthusiasm.[79] Hawking started developing a reputation for brilliance and brashness when he publicly challenged the work of Fred Hoyle and his student Jayant Narlikar at a lecture in June 1964.[80][81]

When Hawking began his graduate studies, there was much debate in the physics community about the prevailing theories of the creation of the universe: the Big Bang and the Steady State theories.[82] Inspired by Roger Penrose's theorem of a spacetime singularity in the centre of black holes, Hawking applied the same thinking to the entire universe, and during 1965 wrote up his thesis on this topic.[83] There were other positive developments: Hawking received a research fellowship at Gonville and Caius College, and he and Jane were married on 14 July 1965.[84] He obtained his Ph.D. degree in March 1966,[85] and his essay entitled "Singularities and the Geometry of Space-Time" shared top honours with one by Penrose to win that year's Adams Prize.[86][85]

Later life and career

1966–1975

During their first years of marriage, Jane lived in London during the week as she completed her degree and they travelled to the United States several times for conferences and physics-related visits. The couple had difficulty finding housing that was within Hawking's walking distance to the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics (DAMTP). Jane began a Ph.D. program, and a son, Robert, was born in May 1967.[87][88] In his work, and in collaboration with Penrose, Hawking extended the singularity theorem concepts first explored in his doctoral thesis. This included not only the existence of singularities but also the theory that the universe might have started as a singularity. Their joint essay was the runner-up in the 1968 Gravity Research Foundation competition.[89][90] In 1970 they published a proof that if the universe obeys the general theory of relativity and fits any of the models of physical cosmology developed by Alexander Friedmann, then it must have begun as a singularity.[91][92][93]

During the late 1960s, Hawking's physical abilities declined once more: he began to use crutches and ceased lecturing regularly.[94] As he slowly lost the ability to write, he developed compensatory visual methods, including seeing equations in terms of geometry.[95][96] The physicist Werner Israel later compared the achievements to Mozart composing an entire symphony in his head.[97][98] Hawking was, however, fiercely independent and unwilling to accept help or make concessions for his disabilities. He preferred to be regarded as "a scientist first, popular science writer second, and, in all the ways that matter, a normal human being with the same desires, drives, dreams, and ambitions as the next person."[99] Jane Hawking later noted that "Some people would call it determination, some obstinacy. I've called it both at one time or another."[100] He required much persuasion to accept the use of a wheelchair at the end of the 1960s,[101] but ultimately became notorious for the wildness of his wheelchair driving.[100] Hawking was a popular and witty colleague, but his illness as well as his reputation for brashness and intelligence distanced him from some.[102] In 1969, Hawking accepted a specially created 'Fellowship for Distinction in Science' to remain at Caius.[103]

A daughter, Lucy, was born in 1970.[104] Soon after Hawking discovered what became known as the second law of black hole dynamics, that the event horizon of a black hole can never get smaller.[105] With James M. Bardeen and Brandon Carter, he proposed the four laws of black hole mechanics, drawing an analogy with thermodynamics.[106] To Hawking's irritation, Jacob Bekenstein, a graduate student of John Wheeler, went further—and ultimately correctly—applying thermodynamic concepts literally.[107][108] In the early 1970s, Hawking's work with Carter, Werner Israel and David C. Robinson strongly supported Wheeler's no-hair theorem that no matter what the original material from which a black hole is created it can be completely described by the properties of mass, electrical charge and rotation.[109][110] His essay titled "Black Holes" won the Gravity Research Foundation Award in January 1971.[111] Hawking's first book The Large Scale Structure of Space-Time written with George Ellis was published in 1973.[112]

Beginning in 1973, Hawking moved into the study of quantum gravity and quantum mechanics.[113][112] His work in this area was spurred by a visit to Moscow and discussions with Yakov Borisovich Zel'dovich and Alexei Starobinsky, whose work showed that according to the uncertainty principle rotating black holes emit particles.[114] To Hawking's annoyance, his much-checked calculations produced findings that contradicted his second law, which claimed black holes could never get smaller,[115] and supported Bekenstein's reasoning about their entropy.[116][114] His results, which Hawking presented from 1974, showed that black holes emit radiation, known today as Hawking radiation, which may continue until they exhaust their energy and evaporate.[117][118][119] Initially, Hawking radiation was controversial. However by the late 1970s and following the publication of further research, the discovery was widely accepted as a significant breakthrough in theoretical physics.[120][121][122] In March 1974, a few weeks after the announcement of Hawking radiation, Hawking was invested as a Fellow of the Royal Society, one of the youngest scientists to be so honoured.[123][124]

Hawking rarely discussed his illness and physical challenges, even—in a precedent set during their courtship—with Jane.[125] Hawking's disabilities meant that the responsibilities of home and family rested firmly on his wife's increasingly overwhelmed shoulders, leaving him more time to think about physics.[126] When in 1974 Hawking was appointed to the Sherman Fairchild Distinguished Scholar visiting professorship at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), Jane proposed that a graduate or post-doctoral student live with them and help with his care. Hawking accepted, and Bernard Carr travelled to California with them as the first of many students who fulfilled this role.[127][128] The family spent a generally happy and stimulating year in Pasadena.[129] Hawking worked with his friend on the faculty, Kip Thorne,[130] and engaged him in a scientific wager about whether the dark star Cygnus X-1 was a black hole. The wager was a surprising "insurance policy" against the proposition that black holes did not exist.[131] Hawking acknowledged that he had lost the bet in 1990, which was the first of several that he was to make with Thorne and others.[132] Hawking has maintained ties to Caltech, spending a month there almost every year since this first visit.[133]

1975–1990

Hawking returned to Cambridge in 1975 to a new home, a new job—as Reader. Don Page, with whom Hawking had begun a close friendship at Caltech, arrived to work as the live-in graduate student assistant. With Page's help and that of a secretary, Jane's responsibilities were reduced so she could return to her thesis and her new interest in singing.[134] The mid to late 1970s were a period of growing public interest in black holes and of the physicist who was studying them. Hawking was regularly interviewed for print and television.[135][136] He also received increasing academic recognition of his work.[137] In 1975 he was awarded both the Eddington Medal and the Pius XI Gold Medal, and in 1976 the Dannie Heineman Prize, the Maxwell Prize and the Hughes Medal.[138][139]
Hawking was appointed a professor with a chair in gravitational physics in 1977.[140] The following year he received the Albert Einstein Medal and an honorary doctorate from the University of Oxford.[77][137]

Hawking's speech deteriorated, and by the late 1970s he could only be understood by his family and closest friends. To communicate with others, someone who knew him well would translate his speech into intelligible speech.[141] Spurred by a dispute with the university over who would pay for the ramp needed for him to enter his workplace, Hawking and his wife campaigned for improved access and support for those with disabilities in Cambridge,[142][143] including adapted student housing at the university.[144] In general, however, Hawking had ambivalent feelings about his role as a disability rights champion: while wanting to help others, he sought to detach himself from his illness and its challenges.[145] His lack of engagement led to some criticism.[146] The Hawking family welcomed a third child, Timothy, in April 1979.[137] That autumn Hawking was appointed the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge.[137][147]

Hawking's inaugural lecture as Lucasian Professor of Mathematics was titled: "Is the end in sight for Theoretical Physics" and proposed N=8 Supergravity as the leading theory to solve many of the outstanding problems physicists were studying.[148] Hawking's promotion coincided with a health crisis which led to Hawking accepting, albeit reluctantly, some nursing services at home.[149] At the same time he was also making a transition in his approach to physics, becoming more intuitive and speculative rather than insisting on mathematical proofs. "I would rather be right than rigorous" he told Kip Thorne.[150] In 1981 he proposed that information in a black hole is irretrievably lost when a black hole evaporates. This information paradox violates the fundamental tenet of quantum mechanics, and was to lead to years of debate, including "the Black Hole War" with Leonard Susskind and Gerard 't Hooft.[151][152]

In December 1977, Jane had met organist Jonathan Hellyer Jones when singing in a church choir. Hellyer Jones became close to the Hawking family, and by the mid-1980s, he and Jane had developed romantic feelings for each other.[140][153][154] According to Jane, her husband was accepting of the situation, stating "he would not object so long as I continued to love him."[140][155][156] Jane and Hellyer Jones determined not to break up the family and their relationship remained platonic for a long period.[157]

Cosmological inflation—a theory proposing that following the Big Bang the universe initially expanded incredibly rapidly before settling down to a slower expansion—was proposed by Alan Guth and also developed by Andrei Linde.[158] Following a conference in Moscow in October 1981, Hawking and Gary Gibbons organized a three-week Nuffield Workshop in the summer of 1982 on the Very Early Universe at Cambridge University, which focused mainly on inflation theory.[159][160][161] Hawking also began a new line of quantum theory research into the origin of the universe. In 1981 at a Vatican conference he presented work suggesting that there might be no boundary—or beginning or ending—to the universe.[162][163] He subsequently developed the research in collaboration with Jim Hartle, and in 1983 they published a model, known as the Hartle–Hawking state. It proposed that prior to the Planck epoch, the universe had no boundary in space-time; before the Big Bang, time did not exist and the concept of the beginning of the universe is meaningless.[164] The initial singularity of the classical Big Bang models was replaced with a region akin to the North Pole. One cannot travel north of the North Pole, but there is no boundary there—it is simply the point where all north-running lines meet and end.[165][166] Initially the no-boundary proposal predicted a closed universe which had implications about the existence of God. As Hawking explained "If the universe has no boundaries but is self-contained... then God would not have had any freedom to choose how the universe began."[167]

Hawking did not rule out the existence of a Creator, asking in A Brief History of Time "Is the unified theory so compelling that it brings about its own existence?"[168] In his early work, Hawking spoke of God in a metaphorical sense. In A Brief History of Time he wrote: "If we discover a complete theory, it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason—for then we should know the mind of God."[169] In the same book he suggested the existence of God was unnecessary to explain the origin of the universe. Later discussions with Neil Turok led to the realisation that it is also compatible with an open universe.[170]

Further work by Hawking in the area of arrows of time led to the 1985 publication of a paper theorising that if the no-boundary proposition were correct, then when the universe stopped expanding and eventually collapsed, time would run backwards.[171] A paper by Don Page and Raymond Laflamme led Hawking to withdraw this concept.[172] Honours continued to be awarded: in 1981 he was awarded the American Franklin Medal,[173] and in 1982 made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE).[174][175] Awards do not pay the bills, however, and motivated by the need to finance the children's education and home expenses, in 1982 Hawking determined to write a popular book about the universe that would be accessible to the general public.[176][177] Instead of publishing with an academic press, he signed a contract with Bantam Books, a mass market publisher, and received a large advance for his book.[178][179] A first draft of the book, called A Brief History of Time, was completed in 1984.[180]

During a visit to CERN in Geneva in the summer of 1985, Hawking contracted pneumonia which in his condition was life-threatening; he was so ill that Jane was asked if life support should be terminated. She refused but the consequence was a tracheotomy, which would require round-the-clock nursing care, and remove what remained of his speech.[181][182] The National Health Service would pay for a nursing home but Jane was determined that he would live at home. The cost of the care was funded by an American foundation.[183][184] Nurses were hired for the three shifts required to provide the round-the-clock support he required. One of those employed was Elaine Mason, who was to become Hawking's second wife.[185] For his communication, Hawking initially raised his eyebrows to choose letters on a spelling card.[186] But he then received a computer program called the "Equalizer" from Walt Woltosz. In a method he uses to this day, using a switch he selects phrases, words or letters from a bank of about 2500–3000 that are scanned.[187][188] The program was originally run on a desktop computer. However, Elaine Mason's husband David, a computer engineer, adapted a small computer and attached it to his wheelchair.[189] Released from the need to use somebody to interpret his speech, Hawking commented that "I can communicate better now than before I lost my voice."[190] The voice he uses has an American accent and is no longer produced.[191][192] Despite the availability of other voices, Hawking has retained his original voice, saying that he prefers his current voice and identifies with it.[193] At this point, Hawking activated a switch using his hand and could produce up to 15 words a minute.[194] Lectures were prepared in advance, and sent to the speech synthesiser in short sections as they were delivered.[191]

One of the first messages Hawking produced with his speech generating device was a request for his assistant to help him finish writing A Brief History of Time.[194] Peter Guzzardi, his editor at Bantam, pushed him to explain his ideas clearly in non-technical language, a process that required multiple revisions from an increasingly irritated Hawking.[195] The book was published in April 1988 in the US and in June in the UK, and proved to be an extraordinary success, rising quickly to the top of bestseller lists in both countries and remaining there for weeks and months.[196][197][198] The book was translated into multiple languages,[199] and ultimately sold an estimated 9 million copies.[198]
Media attention was intense,[199] and Newsweek magazine cover and a television special both described him as "Master of the Universe". Success led to significant financial rewards, but also the challenges of celebrity status.[200] Hawking travelled extensively to promote his work, and enjoyed partying and dancing[citation needed] into the small hours.[199] He had difficulty refusing the invitations and visitors which left limited time for work and his students.[201] Some colleagues were resentful of the attention Hawking received, feeling it was due to his disability.[202][203] He received further academic recognition, including five further honorary degrees,[204] the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society (1985),[205] the Paul Dirac Medal (1987)[204] and, jointly with Penrose, the prestigious Wolf Prize (1988).[206] In 1989, he was named a Companion of Honour by Queen Elizabeth II.[201] He reportedly declined a knighthood.[207]

1990–2000

Hawking's marriage had been strained for many years. Jane felt overwhelmed by the intrusion into their family life of the required nurses and assistants. The impact of his celebrity was challenging for colleagues and family members, and in one interview Jane described her role as "simply to tell him that he's not God."[208][209] Hawking's agnostic views of religion also contrasted with her strong Christian faith, and resulted in tension.[210][209][211] In the late 1980s Hawking had grown close to one of his nurses, Elaine Mason, to the dismay of some colleagues, caregivers and family members who were disturbed by her strength of personality and protectiveness.[212] Hawking told Jane that he was leaving her for Mason,[213] and departed the family home in February 1990.[174] Following his divorce from Jane in the spring of 1995, Hawking married Mason in September,[214][174] declaring "It's wonderful—I have married the woman I love."[215]

Hawking pursued his work in physics: in 1993 he co-edited a book on Euclidean quantum gravity with Gary Gibbons, and published a collected edition of his own articles on black holes and the Big Bang.[216] In 1994 at Cambridge's Newton Institute, Hawking and Penrose delivered a series of six lectures, which were published in 1996 as "The Nature of Space and Time".[217] In 1997 he conceded a 1991 public scientific wager made with Kip Thorne and John Preskill of Caltech. Hawking had bet that Penrose's proposal of a "cosmic censorship conjecture"—that there could be no "naked singularities" unclothed within a horizon—was correct.[218] After discovering his concession might have been premature, a new, more refined, wager was made. This specified that such singularities would occur without extra conditions.[219] The same year, Thorne, Hawking and Preskill made another bet, this time concerning the black hole information paradox.[220][221] Thorne and Hawking argued that since general relativity made it impossible for black holes to radiate and lose information, the mass-energy and information carried by Hawking Radiation must be "new", and not from inside the black hole event horizon. Since this contradicted the quantum mechanics of microcausality, quantum mechanics theory would need to be rewritten. Preskill argued the opposite, that since quantum mechanics suggests that the information emitted by a black hole relates to information that fell in at an earlier time, the concept of black holes given by general relativity must be modified in some way.[222]

Hawking also maintained his public profile, including bringing science to a wider audience. A film version of A Brief History of Time, directed by Errol Morris and produced by Steven Spielberg, premiered in 1992. Hawking had wanted the film to be scientific rather than biographical, but was persuaded otherwise. The film, while a critical success, was however not widely released.[223] A popular-level collection of essays, interviews and talk titled Black Holes and Baby Universes and Other Essays was published in 1993[224] and six-part television series Stephen Hawking's Universe and companion book appeared in 1997. As Hawking insisted, this time the focus was entirely on science.[225][226] He also made several appearances in popular media. At the release party for the home video version of the A Brief History of Time, Leonard Nimoy, who had played Spock on Star Trek, learned that Hawking was interested in appearing on the show. Nimoy made the necessary contact, and Hawking played a holographic simulation of himself in an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation in 1993.[227][228][229] The same year, his synthesiser voice was recorded for the Pink Floyd song "Keep Talking",[230][224] and in 1999 for an appearance on The Simpsons.[231]
In the 1990s, Hawking accepted more openly the mantle of role model for disabled people, including lecturing on the subject and participating in fundraising activities.[232] At the turn of the century, he and eleven other luminaries signed the "Charter for the Third Millennium on Disability" which called on governments to prevent disability and protect disabled rights.[233][234] In 1999 Hawking was awarded the Julius Edgar Lilienfeld Prize of the American Physical Society.[235] The same year, Jane Hawking published a memoir, Music to Move the Stars, describing her marriage to Hawking and its breakdown. Its revelations caused a sensation in the media, but as was his usual practice regarding his personal life, Hawking made no public comment except to say that he did not read biographies about himself.[236]

2000–present

Hawking outside, in his wheelchair, talking to David Gross and Edward Witten
Hawking with string theorists David Gross and Edward Witten at the 2001 Strings Conference, TIFR, India
Hawking sitting in his wheelchair inside
Hawking on 5 May 2006, during the press conference at the Bibliothèque nationale de France to inaugurate the Laboratory of Astronomy and Particles in Paris and the French release of his work God Created the Integers

Following his second marriage, Hawking's family felt excluded and marginalised from his life.[211][237] For a period of about five years in the early 2000s, his family and staff became increasingly worried that he was being physically abused.[237][238] Police investigations took place, but were closed as Hawking refused to make a complaint.[237][239][240]

Hawking continued his writings for a popular audience, publishing The Universe in a Nutshell in 2001, [241] and A Briefer History of Time which he wrote in 2005 with Leonard Mlodinow to update his earlier works to make them accessible to a wider audience, and God Created the Integers, which appeared in 2006.[242] Along with Thomas Hertog at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) and Jim Hartle, from 2006 on Hawking developed a theory of "top-down cosmology", which says that the universe had not one unique initial state but many different ones, and therefore that it is inappropriate to formulate a theory that predicts the universe's current configuration from one particular initial state.[243] Top-down cosmology posits that the present "selects" the past from a superposition of many possible histories. In doing so, the theory suggests a possible resolution of the fine-tuning question.[244][245]

In 2006 Hawking and Elaine quietly divorced,[246][247] following which Hawking resumed closer relationships with Jane, his children and grandchildren.[247][209] Reflecting this happier period, a revised version of Jane's book called Travelling to Infinity, My Life with Stephen appeared in 2007.[237] That year Hawking and his daughter Lucy published George's Secret Key to the Universe, a children's book designed to explain theoretical physics in an accessible fashion and featuring characters similar to those in the Hawking family.[248] The book was followed by sequels in 2009 and 2011.[249]

Hawking continued to feature regularly on the screen: documentaries entitled :The Real Stephen Hawking: (2001)[250] and Stephen Hawking: Profile (2002), [251] a TV film Hawking about the period around the onset of Hawking's illness (2004),[251] and a documentary series Stephen Hawking, Master of the Universe (2008).[252] Hawking made further appearances in animated form on The Simpsons,[253][254] and Futurama[245] in which he does his own voice acting,[255] and in person on The Big Bang Theory.[256] Hawking continued to travel widely, including trips to Chile, Easter Island, South Africa and Spain (to receive the Fonseca Prize in 2008) [257][258] Canada[259] and multiple trips to the United States.[260] For practical reasons related to his disability Hawking increasingly travelled by private jet, and by 2011 that had become his only mode of international travel.[261]

Over the years, Hawking maintained his public profile with a series of attention-getting and often controversial statements:[262] he has asserted that computer viruses were a form of life,[263] that humans should use genetic engineering to avoid being outsmarted by computers,[264] and that aliens likely exist and contact with them should be avoided.[265][266] Hawking has expressed his concerns that life on earth is at risk due to "a sudden nuclear war, a genetically engineered virus or other dangers we have not yet thought of".[267] He views spaceflight and the colonisation of space as necessary for the future of humanity.[267][268] Motivated by the desire to increase public interest in spaceflight and to show the potential of people with disabilities, in 2007 he participated in zero-gravity flight in a "Vomit Comet", courtesy of Zero Gravity Corporation, during which he experienced weightlessness eight times.[267][269][270][271]
Hawking, without his wheelchair, floating weightless in the air inside a plane
Hawking taking a zero-gravity flight in a "Vomit Comet"

A longstanding Labour Party supporter, Hawking has also increasingly made his views known on a variety of political subjects.[272][273] He recorded a tribute for the 2000 Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore,[274] called the 2003 invasion of Iraq a "war crime",[273][275] boycotted a conference in Israel due to concerns about Israel's policies towards Palestinians,[276][277][278] maintained his longstanding campaigning for nuclear disarmament,[272][279][273] and has supported stem cell research,[273][280] universal health care,[281] and action to prevent climate change.[279] Hawking has also used his fame to advertise products, including a wheelchair,[234] National Savings,[282] British Telecom, Specsavers and Egg Banking,[283] and Go Compare.[284]

In the area of physics, by 2003, consensus was growing that Hawking was wrong about the loss of information in a black hole.[285] In a 2004 lecture in Dublin, the physicist conceded his 1997 bet with Preskill, but described his own, somewhat controversial solution, to the information paradox problem, involving the possibility that black holes have more than one topology.[286][222] In the 2005 paper he published on the subject, he argued that the information paradox was explained by examining all the alternative histories of universes, with the information loss in those with black holes being cancelled out by those without.[221][287] In January 2014 he called this his "biggest blunder."[288]

As part of another longstanding scientific dispute, Hawking had emphatically argued, and bet, that the Higgs Boson would never be found.[289] The particle, proposed to exist as part of the Higgs Field theory by Peter Higgs in 1964, became discoverable with the advent of the Fermilab near Chicago and the Large Electron Positron and the Large Hadron Collider at CERN.[290] Hawking and Higgs engaged in a heated and public debate over the matter in 2002 and again in 2008, with Higgs criticising Hawking's work and complaining that Hawking's "celebrity status gives him instant credibility that others do not have."[290] The particle was discovered at CERN in July 2012: Hawking quickly conceded that he had lost his bet[291][292] and said that Higgs should win the Nobel Prize for Physics.[293]

In 2007 he posed this open question on the Internet: “In a world that is in chaos politically, socially and environmentally, how can the human race sustain another 100 years?” A month later he confessed: “I don’t know the answer. That is why I asked the question, to get people to think about it, and to be aware of the dangers we now face.” The Guardian, Britain.

Hawking's disease-related deterioration has continued, and in 2005 he began to control his communication device with movements of his cheek muscles,[294][295][296] with a rate of about one word per minute.[295] With this decline there is a risk of him acquiring locked-in syndrome, so Hawking is collaborating with researchers on systems that could translate Hawking's brain patterns or facial expressions into switch activations.[245][296][297] By 2009 he could no longer drive his wheelchair independently.[298] He has increased breathing difficulties, requiring a ventilator at times, and has been hospitalized several times.[245] In 2002, following a UK-wide vote, the BBC included him in their list of the 100 Greatest Britons. Hawking was awarded the Copley Medal from the Royal Society (2006),[299] America's highest civilian honour, the Presidential Medal of Freedom (2009),[300][301] and the Russian Fundamental Physics Prize (2012).[302]
Barack Obama talking to Stephen Hawking in the White House
U.S. President Barack Obama talks with Stephen Hawking in the Blue Room of the White House before a ceremony presenting him and 15 others with the Presidential Medal of Freedom on 12 August 2009

Several buildings have been named after him, including the Stephen W. Hawking Science Museum in San Salvador, El Salvador,[303] the Stephen Hawking Building in Cambridge,[304] and the Stephen Hawking Centre at Perimeter Institute in Canada.[305] Appropriately, given Hawking's association with time, he unveiled the mechanical "Chronophage" (or time-eating) Corpus Clock at Corpus Christi College Cambridge in September 2008.[306][307]

As required by university regulations, Hawking retired as Lucasian Professor of Mathematics in 2009. Despite suggestions that he might leave the United Kingdom as a protest against public funding cuts to basic scientific research,[308] Hawking has continued to work as director of research at the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, and has indicated no plans to retire.[309]

Hawking has stated that he is "not religious in the normal sense" and he believes that "the universe is governed by the laws of science. The laws may have been decreed by God, but God does not intervene to break the laws."[310] In an interview published in The Guardian, Hawking regarded the concept of Heaven as a myth, believing that there is "no heaven or afterlife" and that such a notion was a "fairy story for people afraid of the dark."[169]

In 2011, when narrating the first episode of the American television series Curiosity on the Discovery Channel, Hawking declared:
We are each free to believe what we want and it is my view that the simplest explanation is there is no God. No one created the universe and no one directs our fate. This leads me to a profound realization. There is probably no heaven, and no afterlife either. We have this one life to appreciate the grand design of the universe, and for that, I am extremely grateful.[311][312]
At Google's Zeitgeist Conference in 2011, Hawking said that "philosophy is dead." He believes that philosophers "have not kept up with modern developments in science" and that scientists "have become the bearers of the torch of discovery in our quest for knowledge." He said that philosophical problems can be answered by science, particularly new scientific theories which "lead us to a new and very different picture of the universe and our place in it".[313] In August 2012 Hawking narrated the "Enlightenment" segment of the 2012 Summer Paralympics opening ceremony.[314] In 2013, the biographical documentary film Hawking, in which Hawking himself is featured, was released.[315][316][317] In September 2013, he expressed support for the legalization of assisted suicide for the terminally ill.[318]
We are all different – but we share the same human spirit. Perhaps it's human nature that we adapt – and survive.
—Stephen Hawking, Hawking[319]

Awards and honours

Hawking has received numerous awards and honours. In 1974 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS). His nomination reads

“ Hawking has made major contributions to the field of general relativity. These derive from a deep understanding of what is relevant to physics and astronomy, and especially from a mastery of wholly new mathematical techniques. Following the pioneering work of Penrose he established, partly alone and partly in collaboration with Penrose, a series of successively stronger theorems establishing the fundamental result that all realistic cosmological models must possess singularities. Using similar techniques, Hawking has proved the basic theorems on the laws governing black holes: that stationary solutions of Einstein's equations with smooth event horizons must necessarily be axisymmetric; and that in the evolution and interaction of black holes, the total surface area of the event horizons must increase. In collaboration with G. Ellis, Hawking is the author of an impressive and original treatise on "Space-time in the Large". Other important work by Hawking relates to the interpretation of cosmological observations and to the design of gravitational wave detectors.[13]
 ”

During his career Hawking has supervised 39 successful PhD students.[2][3][4][5][320][321][322][323] [6][324] [325] [326] [7][327] [328][329][8][330] [9] [331][332][333][334][335][336][10][11][337][338][339][340][341][342][343][344][345][346][347][348][349]

Bibliography

Selected academic works

Hawking and his daughter Lucy on stage at a presentation
Stephen Hawking being presented by his daughter Lucy Hawking at the lecture he gave for NASA's 50th anniversary
Co-written with his daughter Lucy.

Popular publications

Benedict Cumberbatch portrayed the scientist in the 2004 film Hawking.

Children's fiction

Films and series

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