Making a difference（The First Period）

what do you think about our beginnings? if you would like to read more about stephen's ideas on the origins of the universe, then you should read his best seller a brief history of time.
in spite of his difficult illness and his confinement to a wheelchair, stephen hawking works as a professor of mathematics at cambridge; holding the same position held by another famous scientist, isaac newton, in1663. it may be that the name hawking could become just as well known in history as that of his famous predecessor.
          2. stephen hawking in china
stephen hawking, the disabled author of a brief history of time is launching his second journey to china in hangzhou of zhejiang province. his first visit was over 10 years ago.
the great theoretical scientist has been invited to attend a state-of-the-art mathematics research institute at zhejiang university, hangzhou-based dushi kuaibao reported.
on sunday evening, he made his debut at a press conference held at shangri-la hotel, hangzhou. hawking appeared at about 5:00 p.m. with his wife.
   the 50-year-old man answered a total of nine questions with the help of his computer.
“experts in theoretical science are dispersed around the world, but we need communication. i am very glad that the world's first-class conference is being held in china this time,” he said.
    “i find the real universe much more interesting than the one in the film star wars,” hawking joked. “i encourage young people to study theoretical physics first if they are interested in it.”
stephen hawking has worked on the basic laws which govern the universe. with roger penrose he showed that einstein's general theory of relativity implied space and time would have a beginning in the big bang and an end in black holes. these results indicated it was necessary to unify general relativity with quantum theory, the other great scientific development of the first half of the 20th century.
one consequence of such a unification theory would be that black holes would not be completely black, but emit radiation and eventually evaporate and disappear. another conjecture is that the universe has no edge or boundary in imaginary time. this would imply that the way the universe began was completely determined by the laws of science.
but the talented man who has produced such rich work suffers serious amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (als). he is one of the350 000 sufferers in the world. the disease kills over 100 000 people every year.