• Question: have you ever been enspired by stephen hawkins

    Asked by botter7r2 to Amy, Drew, Julia, Sara on 22 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Amy MacQueen

      Amy MacQueen answered on 22 Jun 2011:

      Hi botter!

      Hawkins is a very brilliant thinker! He actually lives in cambridge on the same street as one of my best friends!! 🙂

    • Photo: Drew Rae

      Drew Rae answered on 22 Jun 2011:

      Hi Botter. I think Stephen Hawkins has done a lot to make science cool and popular. That’s had almost as much effect as his straight scientific work, which is recognised as brilliant as well. I haven’t been personally inspired, but mainly just because he works in a field of science I don’t find that interesting.

    • Photo: Sara Imari Walker

      Sara Imari Walker answered on 22 Jun 2011:

      Hi botter! Yes! I find Stephen Hawkins hugely inspiring. For one he has overcome a tragic illness in ways no one every expected he could. He has in some sense taken tragedy and turned it to triumph – proving the power of the human mind and the power of pure theoretical science. And his work is brillant! Even with the handicap his illness has given him, he has come up with absolutely brillant theories over the years. For one he discovered Hawking radiation – that black holes actually evaporate!! And he did a lot of work on black hole thermodynamics, proving that black holes do some really weird things that make us have to rethink a lot of our fundamental assumptions in physics – including the nature information even! Wow!!!

      Most inspiring though is that de has done a tremendous amount for the popularization of science too, which is something not a lot of us do. Most scientists don’t care if everyone understands their work, but I think he really does. And, I think that is fantastic!!!

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