Page 8 - Newsletter Vol 1 Issue 9

An epitome of Determina�on- Stephen Hawking

Stephen William Hawking was born on 8 January 1942. He
was an English theore�cal physicist, cosmologist and an
author. He was the director of research at Centre of
Theore�cal Cosmology and at the University of Cambridge.
Stephen was born in Oxford in a family of doctors. He started
his university educa�on from The University College of
Oxford in 1959 at the age of 17. He then began his gradua�on
at the Trinity Hall in Cambridge and he obtained his PhD
degree in applied mathema�cs and theore�cal physics there,
specializing in general rela�vity and cosmology.

It was during that period – in 1963, that Stephen got affected by motor neurone disease which was also
called as Lou Gehrig's disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis which slowly paralyzed him over the
decades. A�er losing his speech, he started using a voice processor. When Stephen lost the ability to write,
he would dictate the equa�ons to his colleagues which they would write down and all of them were
perfect. In the later years, he also discovered that black holes could emit radia�on and it was a surprising
find. This was then called the Hawking effect.

The earliest symptom of Stephen’s disease was his unclear speech. While speaking he would o�en let the
words slip away but, no one at that �me thought it concerning as the English elite would speak in a similar
manner. His friends and colleagues thought that Stephen, who was born and educated in Oxford,
considered himself special and also thought that he was educated in some big public school.

In the year 1962, Stephen met Jane Wilde and they were soon married and they had three healthy children.
Stephen also wrote a book, ‘ A Brief History of Time’.
Stephen Hawking died on 14th March 2018 but kept researching and contribu�ng to his passion un�l his
brain was func�onal and he eventually died of his illness. He stands as a great example of determina�on.
- Aarav Oza, VII

The inspiring life of Madame Marie Curie:

Marie Curie was born in Warsaw, part of the Russian Empire.
She studied at Warsaw's clandes�ne Flying University and
began her prac�cal scien�fic training in Warsaw. In 1891,
aged 24, she followed her elder sister Bronislawa to study in
Paris, where she earned her higher degrees and conducted
her subsequent scien�fic work. In 1895, she married the
French physicist Pierre Curie, and she shared the 1903 Nobel
Prize in Physics with him and with the physicist Henri
Becquerel for their pioneering work developing the theory
of ‘radioac�vity’, a term she coined. In 1906, Pierre Curie

died in a Paris street accident. Marie won the 1911 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for her discovery of the elements
Polonium and Radium, using techniques she invented for isola�ng radioac�ve isotopes.
In 1920, she founded the Curie Ins�tute in Paris and in 1932, the Curie Ins�tute in Warsaw; both remain major
centres of medical research. During World War. she developed mobile radiography units to provide X-ray services to
field hospitals.
Marie Curie died in 1934, aged 66, at the Sancellemoz sanatorium in Passy France, of aplas�c anemia from
exposure to radia�on in the course of her scien�fic research and in the course of her radiological work at field
hospitals during World War 1.
- Puskur Sahasra, VI

Page: 08