The passing of a great physicist

By THOMAS HUKAHU 

TWO months ago, I wrote an article for Weekender on not allowing your physical impediments to prevent you from learning as well as contributing to the community at large.
An example I gave of as someone who did not allow his disability to prevent him to maximise his participation in what he was good at was renowned theoretical physicist Prof Stephen Hawking of Cambridge.
So, it came as a shock to me when I learned on March 16 that the esteemed cosmologist had passed away two days earlier. (Cosmology is the study of the universe.)
He has been known to have said: “Remember to look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Try to make sense of what you see, and wonder at what makes the universe exist.”
Hawking, who is like the Albert Einstein of this generation, suffered from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, which has paralysed him, including affecting his speech. He moved around in his electrical wheel chair and spoke through a speech-generating device.

Learning from Prof Hawking
Hawking was born in 1942 and did his undergraduate studies at Oxford but later went on to do research work at Cambridge – and that is where he remained ever since.
Some of the top theoretical physicists around the world were either students or collaborators of his on different projects – and they hold him in high regard.
And a lot more people around the world, many of whom are not trained in physics, also learned a little about cosmology from Hawking’s international bestseller A Brief History of Time. The book is said to have sold more than 20 million copies in 10 years.
I have two copies of the book, the first copy was given to me in 2005 as a gift by a Papua New Guinean who was then a Cambridge scholar in anthropology. I bought a second copy at a second hand book shop.
The scholar brought the first book all the way from England as a token of appreciation for the times we spent talking about ideas, him querying me on the basics in physics while he informed me of the start of anthropology and how it took form as a discipline over the years.
I learned (or was reminded of) a few interesting stuff from Hawking’s book – including the general overview of the challenges in physics and its modern theories, like relativity and quantum mechanics.
Firstly, Hawking said he wrote the book to make some money, to support his family. He knew that an academic’s pay may not be sufficient to take care of one’s family, especially when the children were growing up. That was the start of Hawking as a writer – a skill that helped promoted the knowledge of physics and science to the public as well as making some money for him, apart from his university salary.
Secondly, as a teacher, I learned something interesting too from him as a tutor. He said he was once given a course to teach and he realised that he did not study that course as a student. Despite that he pushed himself to study that course on his own before teaching it. Actually he studied the section that was to be taught the night before he taught it. In that regard, he was a self-learner.
Thirdly, the book outlines not only stuff about cosmology but also the proposition, debate and illogical rejection or acceptance of scientific theories over the ages. It should cause a reader to appreciate the work of physicists and astronomers who were often misunderstood, snubbed or even imprisoned for their work which challenged the authorities and theories held fast by the learned of past eras.
Fourthly, towards the end the book, Hawking tells the reader of the main challenge that now faced theoretical physicists – researchers who were working on finding a theory to nicely tie up the two main theories in physics, relativity and quantum theory. There is still a gap that has to be plugged, so to speak.

An inspiration for the impaired 
I am of the view that Hawking is a great inspiration for the disabled. As someone suffering from ALS, he didn’t allow that condition to restrict his movement in anyway. His wheelchair enabled him to remain mobile.
In 2004, when I was presented Hawking’s book, I asked the PNG scholar at Cambridge how Hawking was like on campus and he said the physicist was quite a sight to behold. He would be seen zooming from one end of the campus to the other on his electric wheelchair.
In Hawking’s last recorded speech, he was said to have pointed out that his motto has been, “There are no limits”.
In that sense, he can inspire everyone to not allow an impairment of any kind from restricting them from contributing to the world.
Interestingly, Hawking said there were even advantages to being confined to a wheelchair and having to speak through a voice synthesiser.
“I haven’t had to lecture or teach undergraduates and I haven’t had to sit on tedious and time-consuming committees. So I have been able to devote myself completely to research,” he wrote.
 
Significant contributions made by Hawking
Prof Brian Cox, a theoretical physicist at the University of Manchester and pal of Hawking’s, said in a radio interview while paying tribute to the cosmologist that Hawking was rightly described as one of the greats in theoretical physics.
“That is for several reasons,” Cox said.
“His initial work is built on Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity which was published in 1915. It is the framework within which we understand the universe. It is the theory that tells us how space stretches or shrinks depending on what you caught in it.
“And he (Hawking) proved that given just that theory then there had to be an origin of time. It is called the singularity theory.
“He then went on to study black holes – and he proved that black holes are not entirely black.
“A black hole, by the way, is a giant star that reached the end of its life and collapsed and the common image of a black hole is that you throw something in it and it never comes back out again – it swallows everything and it emits nothing, nothing can escape.
“Hawking showed that black holes have a temperature and they glow and they radiate out into space – and ultimately over a long time evaporate away. This is called Hawking radiation.
As brilliant as he was, Hawking was never awarded a Nobel Prize because his proposition of what happened in black holes was difficult to verify with available data. But it looks likely that in the next few years, his theory may be validated.

Hawking’s view on physics laws and God
When Hawking passed away, there was a lot of talk on social media about his contributions. There was also talk about his lack of faith in God, or him as an atheist.
It is interesting to note from a video made decades ago about Hawking’s concept of God and the universe.
The interviewer asked him: “Do you think God can intervene in the universe as he wants or is God too bound by the laws of science?”
Hawking’s response was: “Your question of whether God is bound by the laws of science is a bit like the question: Can God make a stone that is so heavy that He cannot lift it?
“I do not think it is very useful to speculate on what God might or might not be able to do. Rather we should examine what He actually does with the universe we live in.
“All our observations suggest that they operate according to well-defined laws. These laws may have been ordained by God but it seems He does not intervene in the universe to break the laws, at least not once He has set the universe going”.

Uncertainties in physics
I have mentioned to friends and students I have taught that if Hawking denies the existence of God, that does not mean there is no God. That is his belief. Many other leading scientists of past eras and those today believe in a Creator.
The question of faith is not the same as science – and I mean proper science that is accepted or validated.
Science is not at the same level as faith because faith is a spiritual concept – it is outside the domain of science to adequately describe.
Moreover, Hawking’s theories and thoughts may not be correct – or be all correct, for that matter. Theories suggested by Isaac Newton were found to be insufficient at a certain stage and theories put forward by Einstein answered questions that Newton’s could not.
Even Einstein’s could not make the best connection between general relativity and quantum theory, a task that physicists are still working on. If that theory (a unified field theory) is found, some of Hawking’s propositions may also be found wanting or have to be refined to fit in with a unifying theory.
So, the comforting thought that has been with me while studying physics decades ago at university has been: There will always be something that even the very best minds may not fully grasp and describe. Men cannot and will not know everything.
All senior physics students learn the uncertainty principle, as formulated by German physicist Werner Heisenberg. It states something like: The position and velocity of a particle cannot both be measured exactly, at the same time, even in theory.
That, two decades ago, gave me some comfort about the uncertainties in physics, exciting as it is as a subject. What is deemed to be certain now may not be so – there will be uncertainties.
In every science field new discoveries are being made every year. Some of them are the other sides of a theory that was not well presented in the last 50 or 100 years. And that learning process will still continue because we are human beings and are mortal. We cannot play God – we do not know everything, and will never do so.

• Next issue: Stars, suns and black holes.
• Thomas Hukahu is a freelance writer. He studied physics at university.