Thread: Stephen Hawking hospitalized, reported very ill

I think that is a huge part of his contribution to the sciences. He made it accessible to the layman. Sure he may not be head and shoulders above his peers but he is increasing exposure and understanding which is a big deal in any science.


Oh and I read something this morning that he is recovering well and should come out fine. At his age and with his circumstances though no telling how much longer he has. I'm still in awe of his ability to survive this long.

Originally Posted by TomSD

I think that is a huge part of his contribution to the sciences. He made it accessible to the layman. Sure he may not be head and shoulders above his peers but he is increasing exposure and understanding which is a big deal in any science.

Completely true. Stephen's biggest impact is not in science itself (although the man is quite brilliant) but in exposing common people to physics in a way that captures their imagination. And that is very important in any scientific field. His books are really good.

What do you guys see as his biggest contribution to science? (Let's ignore his storytelling capabilities for the moment)

I think that his work is being heavily discounted in this thread.

Originally Posted by sparq

I think that his work is being heavily discounted in this thread.

I didn't realize this thread has anything at all to do with "his work". I thought it was simply about his health.

I don't think his work is being discounted. All I see is people discussing the difference between his methods and those of other scientists. He is the rock star of his field. Every field needs one to make the public aware of the importance and relevance of their field. The fact that he is brilliant just makes it that much more impressive.

I should have said "scientific work". While his education of the great unwashed deserves recognition too, his contribution to theoretical physics is invaluable.

I wish him strong health and I am hoping for some more exciting science from this smart chap!

Originally Posted by sparq

What do you guys see as his biggest contribution to science? (Let's ignore his storytelling capabilities for the moment)

I think that his work is being heavily discounted in this thread.

That was certainly not my intention. I also acknowledged that the man is quite brilliant. But because of his superstar status, many people think that he is the most scientifically valuable person of the last n decades.

Personally I rate Ed Witten higher. But regardless of that: Roger Penrose, Ed Witten, Kip Thorne, Michio Kaku, Freeman Dyson, Murray Gell-mann, Gerard 't Hoofd, ... and I am probably forgetting a number of physicists which are in the same league as Hawking and of which I read at least one book or publication.

Just because he is the superstar does not mean that he automatically contributed most to the science.

But I digress.

Imo his most interesting work was in hawking decay in an atom core on one side of the spectrum, and the no-hair theory on the other side of the spectrum. I also liked his bubble theory writings in one of his latest books.

He has written about a large number of things, and I don't understand most of it. But the things I mentioned (decay and no hair) are understandable enough that I can grasp them, even if the math is completely beyond me.

By the time I finished my masters in electronics, I considered going for a masters in theoretical physics. But by then I got offered a contract at the placed where I made my thesis, and the job was great.
I also looked at the curriculum, and came to the conclusion that the math required was an order of magnitude more difficult than what I'd already gone through, and that it would probably be beyond my reach to graduate, let alone be brilliant enough to get a phd in qc and land one of the really interesting jobs.

Originally Posted by Bruno

Personally I rate Ed Witten higher. But regardless of that: Roger Penrose, Ed Witten, Kip Thorne, Michio Kaku, Freeman Dyson, Murray Gell-mann, Gerard 't Hoofd, ... and I am probably forgetting a number of physicists which are in the same league as Hawking and of which I read at least one book or publication.

what, not feynman?
Richard Feynman - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

anyhow, i'm glad he's recovering, they've been holding a vigil of sorts for him over on /. and folks have been discussing his contributions to the world of science. i'm going to have to take the plunge and say the best thing he did to make science accessible to the masses was have the guts to parody himself (repeatedly) on Futurama.

Originally Posted by jockeys

what, not feynman?
Richard Feynman - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
.

I did read Feynman and imo he is a true genius, because he noth has the ability to 'be out there' and to explain it to plebes like us.

He wrote a small book on Quantum Electro Dynamics, called QED which was really good.

This is my favorite quote:

“Suppose we want to subtract 236 from 584. First, count out 584 beans and put them in a pot. Then take out 236 beans and put them on one side. Finally, count the beans left in the pot. That number is the result of subtracting 236 from 584.” You might say, Feynman continues, “Mr. Quetzalcoatl! What a tedium – counting beans, putting them in, taking them out – what a job!” To which the priest would reply: “That’s why we have the rules for the bars and dots. The rules are tricky, but they are a much more
efficient way of getting the answer than by counting beans. The important thing is, it makes no difference as far as the answer is concerned: we can predict the rise of Venus by counting beans (slow, but easy to understand) or by using the tricky rules (which are much faster, but it takes years in school to learn them)”.

He the proceeds to explain QED and the reasons why QT did not work for gravity. And everything makes perfect sense. I still don't grok the math involved, and most likely never will, but when I was reading his book I perfectly understood how to count the beans.

Anyway, I thought we were discussing people that were still alive today. Otherwise I would have mentioned Einstein, Heisenberg and Bohr as well as a couple of others that don't immediately spring to mind.

Originally Posted by jockeys

anyhow, i'm glad he's recovering, they've been holding a vigil of sorts for him over on /. and folks have been discussing his contributions to the world of science. i'm going to have to take the plunge and say the best thing he did to make science accessible to the masses was have the guts to parody himself (repeatedly) on Futurama.

I call this a hawking hole...

My girlfriend got to see him lecture at Cal Tech last year. So jealous! I too love me some Feynman. That guy just makes me laugh.