Monday, March 16, 2009

Apperances, Authorship, and Final Good-bye

As we sat there Ryan had began to talk about a new subject once more. He had asked if I’ve ever been on TV or had an appearances anywhere. First, I told Ryan that "Wierd Al" Yankovic had used my name in his song, “White and Nerdy”. I had also made a guest appearance in an episode of “The Simpsons”. The episode was titled, “They Saved Lisa’s Brain” and my role was to stop Springfield's greedy chapter of the Mensa Society from taking over the town. I had also made a guest appearance on the TV program, Star Trek, where I was portrayed as a hologram. I also appeared in Family Guy, where I spoke with a synthesizer, as well as the Fairly Odd Parents on the Nickelodeon channel. Many people also know information about me because I took part in an interview titled, Stephen Hawking, Master of the Universe.
I then went on to tell Ryan that I am a well-known author. As many people might say my most-known or best seller is called A Brief History of Time. In this book I tried to explain to ordinary people the subjects of cosmology, black holes, Big Bang Theory, light cones, and I also included mathematics within the book. It has sold over 9 million copies and was later made into a film. I also wrote and published A Briefer History of Time, which is an updated and rewritten version of the original, A Brief History of Time. Other works of mine include, The Universe in a Nutshell, Black Holes and Baby Universes and Other Essays, and Georgia’s Secret Key to the universe, which is a children’s book.
Ryan then asked if I had won any awards. Not to brag, but yes I have. In 1975 I won the Eddington Medal, in 1976 I received the Hughes Medal of the Royal Society, and in 1979 I won the Albert Einstein Medal. Some of the other large medals I won include, a Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1985, The Companion of Honour in 1989, and the Copley Medal of the Royal Society in 2006.
So this was it. My entire life, awards, and discoveries had all been discussed with Ryan. I told Ryan that I hope we will be able to meet here in the future, not to talk about my life history, but to talk about anything in his life or my own. Ryan stood up, said his good-bye, and walked to the parking lot. I sat there under the tree, in my wheelchair, until the sun had set. I thought to myself what a wonderful and dedicated young man Ryan was.

Cosmology and Quantum Explanation

As we sat there in our new location we began a new topic. Ryan had asked if I could explain in a little more depth theoretical cosmology. I told Ryan that theoretical cosmology is just a study or field of astronomy. It examines the largest-scale structures of the universe. It originates from the Copernican principle.It also states that the universe is expanding. Hubble discovered that in the 1920’s. Ryan then asked if I could explain the quantum theory once more. I told him that it is a filed of theoretical physics in which attempts to combine quantum mechanics and general relativity. Ryan then asked one last question. He wanted to know how hard it was to live with Lou Gehrig’s Disease. I told him that it definitely makes life more difficult but it is just an obstacle in life that I need to deal with and face. I told him that my daily routine such as waking up, eating, and going to bed are very difficult and require a lot of time. One thing that I hope is that through my determination and hard work I can inspire anyone that has an illnesses or disability.

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Black Holes Explanation

For the first time, Ryan and I had agreed to meet the very next day. I didn’t have much to do today so I figured we would meet around noon time. I ate my lunch and made my way over to the park. I looked towards the bench were we usually sat but Ryan wasn’t there. After a few minutes I noticed him waving his hands in the air. He was sitting at a new bench and I went to where he was. He said the afternoon sun was too strong for the usual bench so he chose this one in the shade.
I first told Ryan that there really wasn’t much left about my life to talk about. We talked about most of my major accomplishments, education, discoveries, family life, and illness. However I told that I would explain anything in more depth if he wanted. He said he would like to know a little more about what I developed with black holes. I told him that my study in cosmology led me to the best-known singularity in the universe, which is the black hole. I told him that black holes cannot be seen but there are two different things that can be seen. The boundary, or event horizon, can be detected and the effects of black holes and also be seen. Sometimes in pairs of stars, called binaries, only one star can be seen suggesting a black hole. Stars can also seem to speed around in tight orbits of planets, on occasion. We also know that a single black hole can be more massive than a million suns. I also told Ryan that I proved a few things about black holes. First, the surface of a black hole can never decrease; it can only increase. Secondly, I found out that black holes could emit thermal radiation. This is controversial because it goes against the fact that nothing can escape from a black hole. Finally, I stated that black holes were formed from the Big Bang Explosion.

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Support of my wife, and zero-gravity flight

A few days later I awoke around 5:30A.M. and decided to get out of my bed, since I couldn't fall asleep again. I had some breakfast and got dressed. I decided to head out to the park where I would once again meet Ryan. Today as I was on my way there I felt bad. I knew that most of the important stuff in my life has been talked about and there really won't be any other reason to meet Ryan again. I thought that even after we finished everything, we would meet another time and I would allow Ryan to ask me any other questions. I won't discuss anything unless he asks me to. Once again he was on the bench ready to go with his notebook and pen. The only difference is that he had something in a plate. It was breakfast for me. I had already eaten but I decided to have some of his to be nice. We talked a little while I ate and finally when I was finished I asked him where he would like me to begin. He replied by saying that it was up to me. We lasted talked about the time in my life when my illness worsened. I decided to talk a little about my wife. I told him that during this time when the ALS worsened my wife was a huge part of it. She cared for me, which might I say was a very difficult and stressful thing to do, until 1991. Ryan asked if my wife had died in that year. I replied by sating no. This was the year that we separated. She just decided to leave one day and didn’t really want to talk about it too much. However, I asked her the reason why all of a sudden she wanted to end our marriage. Part of it was due to the fact that I was becoming too hard to care for. The other reason she said was due to my increasing fame. It really wasn’t the life that she wanted, and I don’t blame her. Although we separated my wife and I had three children. Ryan asked if I ever remarried and I had. However in 2006 I divorced my second wife.
On my 65th birthday I announced my plan of a zero-gravity flight that took place in 2007. As a man of physics I was so excited to experience zero gravity, or a state of weightlessness, for myself. Richard Branson would finance the trip. Branson and his company, Virgin Galactic, have also been working on a suborbital spaceship that would be used to fly passengers. Hopefully, as it was first expected, will be ready to fly this year. However, I wouldn’t not be experiencing the zero gravity in a spaceship but rather a 727 Boeing, which is an airplane. I would experience about 25 seconds of weightlessness due to the same the plane ascends and descends. Before and during the flight I had a small team of doctors and nurses that were there in case anything went wrong and to make the flight as comfortable as possible for me. I had an amazing time I would enjoy to go back and possibly to space. This trip had also served as an important part in my illness. For a man that can barley move his entire body and can only speak from a voice synthesizer, it meant a lot for me and I’m sure anyone else with a disease or disability. Having no weight on my body almost felt good. It also gave me a chance not to think about my disability. I was able to float around and didn’t even need my wheelchair, which didn’t happen often, besides when I was in bed.
It was time for me to leave again. As I had expected we would only have about three more days to meet before the interview would be over. I hope that we would be able to meet from time to time even after we have finished with the interview.

Friday, March 13, 2009

Radiation Theory and Illness Worsens

The next day I woke up and thought about the previous day. I wondered if Ryan had actually researched my theory. I decided to head out to the park a little earlier today since everyday I went Ryan was already there, so I figured he must have gotten there early everyday. I arrived to where we usually met around 7:15A.M. and Ryan wasn’t there. I just sat in my wheelchair and waited for him. Hours had passes before he finally showed up. It was much later then we had ever met before.
He said that he was so sorry. He was researching my Radiation Theory all night and fell asleep at the computer. I was really impressed with the determination such a young boy had. I asked him if he wanted my to clarify anything or if he had any questions. He answered with a simple no, and said the research clarified everything question he could have ever asked.
Ryan was starting to run out of questions at this point and asked me to explain any other important things in this part of his life. We left off in about the year 1974. This was a year of great hope for me, since I came up with the Hawking Theory, but it was also a year that changed my entire life. In 1974, my disease had been getting increasingly worse and finally, at one point in that year I was no longer to feed myself or even able to get out of my bed. Another thing had happened that I never experienced before. My speech had become so bad that everything I tried to say was just being slurred, and even my closest friends and family couldn’t understand me. In 1975, I developed pneumonia. I also had to have a tracheotomy operation, which removed my voice and made me unable to communicate with anyone. I was finally able to speak once more in my life. A Cambridge scientist built a type of device that would take written information, that I wrote down, and would say it through a voice synthesixer. I was excited to be able to somewhat be able to talk again even though it wasn’t my real voice. And that was exactly the problem. Not only wasn’t it my normal sounding voice, it had an American accent. This took some time to get used to but it doesn’t bother me now.
The time had come I had my weekly meeting with a scientist at Cambridge and I had to leave. Again, I did not want to leave. I wanted to talk more about this part of my life. I couldn’t stay any longer however. I was already going to be late for the meeting. We said our good-byes and agreed to meet in a few days.

Hawking Radiation andn Black Holes

I ate my lunch and made my way back to the park where I expected Ryan to be. As I had anticipated he was sitting there, but he was still eating his lunch. I asked him if he wanted me to wait while he finished his bagel. He said no, so I pulled my wheelchair up next to him. He looking in his notes and said that I mentioned I developed Hawking Radiation. He said he would like to know a little more about it since he never heard of it before. I began by saying that it shows how quantum affects the way black holes emit black body radiation. I knew this would be a questioned asked by Ryan so at my lunch time I looked up what it meant. I obliviously knew what it was since I developed it but it is something that is very hard to describe to a student. I handed him the paper of what one website said. He read it aloud, "'The Hawking Radiation Theory states that virtual particle-antiparticle pairs are sometimes created outside the event horizon of a black hole.' http://www.rdrop.com/users/green/school/radiatin.htm" I told Ryan to further understand his theory he should research it himself as I did. It is a very difficult thing to explain and it would take far to long to describe. He said he understood and it even seemed far to complicated for him to understand. I argued that statement because I knew that if he researched it for next time we met, he could ask me any questions he wanted to about it.
This was the first time I actually didn’t want to leave but the sun was almost set, so we agreed to meet here again tomorrow.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Black Holes and Theories

A couple of days had passed since the last time I met with Ryan in the park to discuss my life. Today, for some reason, I didn’t feel like being questioned. I would rather just tell Ryan stuff about myself. I made my way down to the park and found Ryan in a different area today. We greeted once more and talked briefly before I told that I would like to discuss the next part of my life, rather then having him ask me questions.
For the next part of my life I researched and worked with the basic laws or guidelines that govern the universe. For the next five years of my life I would work to show London that the beginning of the universe began with the Big Bang and would eventually end in black holes. I worked with Roger Penrose during this time and together we used Einstein's General Theory of Relativity to prove our own theory. At this point Ryan stopped me and asked if I could clarify what a black hole actually was. I told him that it is an area in the universe that the gravitational pull was so strong that nothing could escape the powerful pull. What I meant by the world would end with black holes, was that one day the entire Earth would probably se sucked into one. For the next four years, between 1970-1974, I concentrated my ideas about black holes. Together I had used Quantum Mechanics and General Relativity and finally in the year 1974 I developed my own theory. This theory was called Hawking Radiation.
At this point I told Ryan that I was hungry for lunch and I was going to go home for awhile. We agreed to meet back here in about four hours. I stood up and started for my house.

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

PhD, major accomplishments, and my wife

Again the time had come that I was to go and meet Ryan in the park. I woke up around 7:00A.M. and made my way to the city. Once again he was sitting on the same bench prepared to ask me questions with his notebook and pen. We talked briefly before we stated up with the interview again. Looking back in his notes Ryan said we had talked briefly about my PhD. He said he would like to know more about what I did after I received it. I told him that I went on to be a Research Fellow, which is just a member of a learned society, such as Cambridge. After becoming a Fellow I went on to be a Professional Fellow at Gonville and Caius College, which is constituent college of the University of Cambridge.
Ryan had then asked if I had another major accomplishments around this period of my life. I told Ryan that in 1974 I became one of the youngest Fellows of the Royal Society and in 1982 I was created a Commander of the Order of the British Empire. I also told Ryan that I was part of the Board of Sponsors of The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.
Ryan then asked if I had ever been married. I explained to him that during the first years of my illness I had lost all desire to live. I had worked so hard to become what I had up to that point in my life, and now to think that one illness could possibly stop me from going any further was demeaning. I had no desire to continue research and I could not find a point in living anymore. One day something changed my entire outlook of life. The very special day was when I met Jane Wilde, who would become my wife. Once again I had to leave, but I knew in a couple of days we would meet again to continue this interview...

Further Education and Disease

A week had gone by since I first met Ryan to discuss my life and scientific discoveries. Today was the day that I had told him that I would make my way back over to the park so I could continue with my interview. Again Ryan was on the same bench and I sat down next to him. After we greeted he asked me his first question. Last week we left off talking about my education at Oxford University, and Ryan wanted to know if I had an other further education. I replied by saying yes. I went Cambridge to do some research in the field of Cosmology and theoretical astronomy. Ryan had stopped me and asked what that even meant. I told him that Cosmology is the study of the universe, something I am so fascinated by. While doing my research I had a supervisor named Denis Sciama, and I later gained my PhD.
At this point in my interview I knew that I was avoiding Ryan asking me any questions about my disease. I figured I couldn’t hold back on telling him any further. I stated off by saying that just from the way I look and the reason I used a wheelchair was because I have a very serious disease, and he could tell that. I told him in my junior year at Oxford I had noticed that I was becoming more and more clumsy and gawky. I never thought that it could be a serious disease as it turned out to be. I first got medical help when I entered my first year at Cambridge when my father noticed my clumsiness and brought my to our family doctor. Then my doctor referred me to a specialist, with more knowledge of my possible disease, and was later admitted to the hospital for tests. I under went countless tests and ended up staying in the hospital for about two weeks. At first I never really even got a diagnosis and I didn’t even ask question because I had just figured out it was pretty bad. Then Ryan interrupted me and said that I must know what type of disease I have now. Indeed I did. The disease I have is called Lou Gehig's, which is a type of disease that affects your movement of your muscles. After it had been stabilized I went on to continue with my research at Cambridge. I told Ryan it was my time to leave again but if we agreed to meet again in a couple of days I would be back to talk about the continuation of my research.

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Early Life

Today when I woke up I realized I had to attend my interview with Ryan Camire, a physics student at Bishop Feehan High School in Attleboro MA. About two weeks ago I received an e-mail from him requesting an interview. He said he would to ask me a few questions about my life so he can better appreciate physics and myself. I woke up around 7:30 and did my usual routine to get myself ready for the day. We had agreed at meeting in a nearby park, so I had made my way to where it was located. I saw a young man sitting on the bench and I sat down next to him. As I had expected it was Ryan. We greeted each other and he said it was amazing to meet such an astonished man as myself.
He had asked me some questions about my early life. I started off by saying that I was born in Oxford, England on January 8, 1942, making me 67 years old. I then told him the reason our house was in Oxford and not London itself, was because I was born during the second World War and it was considered a safer place to have children grow up. Ryan proceeded to ask me if I lived there for my entire life. I hadn't. At the age of eight my family moved St. Albans, a town near London. When I had reached the age of eleven I went to Albans School. Later I had attended Oxford University. I told Ryan that when I was first enrolled at the University I didn't want to peruse a career in physics. I wanted to go to college for mathematics, but unfortunately Oxford didn't offer it. Three years later I was a awarded a first class honor degree in the field of Natural Science. At this point I told Ryan that I had another meeting to go to. I told him that if he agreed to meet here again next week I would tell him all about the next part of my life including my research in Cosmology.