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At the age of 21 Stephen Hawking learned he would die of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (known in the United States as Lou Gehrig's disease) within a few years. His engagement and marriage to his girlfriend helped pull him out of depression, he did not die as predicted, and he proceeded to become one of the most famous scientists of the late 20th and early 21st centuries, specializing in theoretical physics and particularly in black holes, cosmology, and quantum gravity. Hawking's image, slumped in his wheelchair, is familiar to many, and he has become an icon for successfully overcoming severe adversity. His first book written for a general readership, A Brief History of Time, became a runaway best seller. Hawking's appearance on many television shows has added to his celebrity.

Although he is now almost completely paralyzed and able to speak only by means of a computer operated voice synthesizer, Hawking's wry sense of humor endears him to all. He placed a bet with a physicist colleague against the success of one of his own ideas and happily lost the bet. And he was the first and only paralyzed person to float weightless. Against all odds, Stephen Hawking, who proved that a black hole is not really black, continues his research into the most fundamental aspects of nature.

Stephen William Hawking was born on January 8, 1942, in Oxford, England. (Hawking likes to point out that his birth date followed the death of Galileo by 300 years to the day.) His parents, Isobel and Frank, were living in London. World War II was in full fury, and the city was a dangerous place as a result of heavy bombing by the German air force. The parents-to-be chose to move temporarily to safer Oxford for the birth of their first child. Over time, Stephen gained two sisters, Philippa and Mary, and a brother, Edward. In 1950, the Hawkings moved to St. Albans, where Stephen attended elementary and high schools. An exceptional mathematics teacher inspired him to specialize in mathematics in high school, but Stephen's father insisted that chemistry was a better specialization. Even as a world-renowned physicist, Stephen Hawking maintains contact with his high school.

Upon graduation from high school in 1959 at the age of 17, Hawking enrolled at University College of Oxford University with a scholarship, intending to study science. This was the college his father had attended. Although Hawking was especially interested in mathematics, there was no mathematics specialist at the college. He instead chose to major in physics, in which he proved exceedingly talented. Hawking's teachers recognized his exceptional mind. He did not work very hard at his studies, however, and the result of his final exam put him on the borderline between graduating with a first-class or a second-class degree. The atmosphere at the college was one of an anti-work attitude. The prevailing student opinion was that one got the degree one deserved with no effort, according to one's natural brilliance or lack thereof. It was simply not done to work to improve one's academic standing through effort. For Hawking an oral exam determined first-class honors and he graduated in 1962, at the age of 20. . .

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