Hawking

[Kip Thorne] He is one of those very few people,

who can see far beyond the borders of current knowledge,

and see how things really work.

[Bernard Carr] He's just got this tremendous determination

to live,

and I do think there's such a thing as a will to live.

[Mary Hawking] He will carry on

until they push him underground.

MY NAME IS STEPHEN HAWKING.

FOR THE PAST 50 YEARS, I HAVE TRAVELED THE WORLD

STUDYING AND LECTURING ABOUT TIME AND SPACE.

THIS FILM IS A PERSONAL JOURNEY THROUGH MY LIFE,

TOLD IN MY OWN WORDS.

COME WITH ME,

AND I WILL TELL YOU THE STORY OF HOW I BECAME WHO I AM.

So are you going to take your lunch in the cafeteria?

- It's up to you.

- [Hawking] YES.

[Niki Pidgeon] I think it would kill him if he was in a home

and being cared for by nurses.

I think that would be the end for him.

He likes to be able to choose

what he wants to do with his life.

He loves the danger of flying,

he wants to go into space and he's been in submarines.

He is just the most craziest man.

He's got a lot of guts in him.

Just through here is the nurses' room.

So if anything medical happens,

we'll just grab a phone and phone 999.

But there is not much that we can actually do

because Stephen is on a Nippy, which he'll breathe on.

If that fails,

the only other thing we could do and we do have,

we have oxygen cylinders and we can give him oxygen.

But if he's in total state

then we will have to let him go.

I HAVE LIVED OVER TWO THIRDS OF MY LIFE

WITH THE THREAT OF DEATH HANGING OVER ME.

BECAUSE EVERY NEW DAY COULD BE MY LAST,

I HAVE DEVELOPED A DESIRE

TO MAKE THE MOST OF EACH AND EVERY MINUTE.

ALTHOUGH I'M 71 NOW,

I STILL GO TO WORK EVERY DAY AT CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY.

[Niki] I'll see you in a bit.

Enjoy your shopping.

KEEPING AN ACTIVE MIND HAS BEEN VITAL TO MY SURVIVAL.

AS HAS BEEN MAINTAINING A SENSE OF HUMOR.

[Niki] When I went to my job interview,

I thought he was going to ask me about my past medical history

and what I've done before in care, but he didn't.

He asked whether I could cook poached eggs.

And I was 19 at the time and I lied,

because I didn't know how to cook poached eggs

but I got the job straight away.

[Niki giggles]

It ain't like going to work anymore,

it's like going to see a friend, well, family.

Stephen's been there through the years of me growing up

and like turning into an adult.

So he's been there

through most of the important stages of my life.

I've had a very privileged life thanks to Stephen.

- Do you enjoy my company?

- MAYBE.

[Laughing]

You're horrible to me, ain't ya?

YES.

AS YOU CAN SEE, THE GRADUAL ADVANCE OF MY ILLNESS

HAS MEANT THAT I AM TOTALLY RELIANT ON THOSE AROUND ME.

SEVENTY-ONE YEARS AGO, LIFE STARTED THAT WAY TOO.

I WAS BORN IN 1942,

EXACTLY 300 YEARS AFTER THE DEATH OF GALILEO.

MY PARENTS WERE BOTH AT OXFORD UNIVERSITY,

WHERE MY FATHER STUDIED MEDICINE.

HE LATER SPECIALIZED IN TROPICAL DISEASES.

IT IS OFTEN SAID THAT A PERSON'S EARLY YEARS

ARE A GOOD INDICATION OF HOW THEY WILL TURN OUT.

PERHAPS MY ELDEST SISTER, MARY, REMEMBERS ME BEST.

[Mary] I remember Stephen was very bright.

Always into things.

I remember my father made me a dolls' house,

so Stephen put in both plumbing and lighting.

He liked to win.

He liked to win in everything.

We all learnt to play draughts.

I beat Stephen once, once at draughts,

and he immediately took up chess

and I never beat him at that again.

I ALSO SPENT A LOT OF TIME PLAYING ON MY OWN AS A BOY.

I HAD A PASSION TO UNDERSTAND HOW THINGS WORKED,

FROM TOY TRAINS TO THE WHOLE UNIVERSE.

He would spend a lot of time looking at the sky,

looking at the stars

and wondering where eternity came to an end.

He couldn't conceive that there could be something

without a finish.

HOME LIFE WAS ALWAYS STIMULATING FOR ME AND MY SIBLINGS.

MY MOTHER AND FATHER WERE INTELLECTUALS,

AND NATURALLY THEY EXPECTED THEIR CHILDREN TO FOLLOW.

[Mary] Both my parents were moving

in the Highgate-Hampstead intelligentsia,

that sort of circle.

We always talked, everybody talked, and everybody argued.

We used to argue theology a lot, it's a great thing for kids

because you don't need any facts whatsoever.

TO OUTSIDERS,

THE HAWKING HOUSEHOLD WAS CONSIDERED ECCENTRIC.

BUT FOR ME,

IT WAS A PLACE WHERE MY MIND WAS CONSTANTLY CHALLENGED.

There were books everywhere.

Bookshelves that were double-banked.

Bookshelves that had, on top of upright books,

rows of other books shoe-horned in wherever there was space.

It was a less conventional house,

one in which the children had a great deal of freedom.

And I remember being quite gob-smacked

by the conversation over lunch.

It was about subjects which were never talked about in my house:

sex, homosexuality, arguments for and against abortion,

and various other subjects that were quite unusual.

AS I DEVELOPED INTO A TEENAGER,

MY PARENTS TAUGHT ME TO ALWAYS QUESTION THINGS AND THINK BIG.

[McClenahan] Stephen devised...

and remember this was in the early 1950s,

...not just one but two computers

which we built from scratch.

I was about the size of a half-depth fridge,

but about as tall and about as wide.

It solved logical problems posed in binary.

"If this condition is true and that condition is true,

"or that condition instead is true, then..."

And it would give you what the "then" meant.

AT SCHOOL, MY CLASSMATES GAVE ME THE NICKNAME EINSTEIN,

EVEN THOUGH I WAS ONLY EVER HALFWAY UP THE CLASS.

IT WAS, I LIKE TO THINK, A VERY BRIGHT CLASS.

[Mary] It was always assumed that Stephen would go to Oxford.

Both my parents had been to Oxford.

He was extremely bright, there was never any doubt about this.

He and my father had a difference of opinion

about what he should study.

Father thought it would be a good thing

if Stephen did medicine,

but Stephen was not into medicine.

He'd have made the most awful doctor!

So they compromised.

WE AGREED ON A DEGREE IN NATURAL SCIENCES,

SPECIALIZING IN PHYSICS.

THE PREVAILING ATTITUDE AT OXFORD AT THE TIME

WAS VERY ANTI-WORK.

YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO BE BRILLIANT WITHOUT EFFORT,

OR TO ACCEPT YOUR LIMITATIONS AND GET A 4TH-CLASS DEGREE.

TO WORK HARD TO GET A BETTER CLASS OF DEGREE

WAS REGARDED AS THE MARK OF A 'GREY MAN',

THE WORST EPITHET IN THE OXFORD VOCABULARY.

I think Steve and I fell both of us

right into that category,

that there was no need to work

or to appear to work.

Steve was a very funny guy,

he was able to appreciate jokes and tell jokes the whole time.

And spontaneous humor was really his forte.

AT OXFORD, I JOINED THE ROWING CLUB AND BECAME A COX.

I RELISHED IN THE FREEDOM, THE SPEED,

AND OF COURSE, CALLING THE SHOTS.

THE ROWING CLUB ALSO INTRODUCED ME

TO ONE OF MY FAVORITE PASTIMES AT OXFORD...

...PARTYING.

I ONCE CALCULATED THAT I DID ABOUT A THOUSAND HOURS WORK

IN THE THREE YEARS I WAS THERE,

AN AVERAGE OF AN HOUR A DAY.

I'M NOT PROUD OF THIS LACK OF WORK,

I'M JUST DESCRIBING MY ATTITUDE AT THE TIME

WHICH I SHARED WITH MOST OF MY FELLOW STUDENTS.

[Berry] Within the whole year

people gradually thought of Steve

as being the brilliant guy in the year.

But he was brilliant in the sense

that he could make off-the-cuff remarks which were deep.

So he was definitely a stand-out person of intellect.

The question always was whether he would use that intellect

to go anywhere.

WELL, IF THE NUMBER OF CHAMPAGNE RECEPTIONS ONE GOES TO

IS A MEASURE OF SUCCESS,

THEN IT WOULD SEEM THAT I HAVE MADE IT.

TONIGHT, I AM GUEST OF HONOR AT THE LAUNCH

OF A SUPER COMPUTER CALLED COSMOS IN CAMBRIDGE.

COSMOS IS ONE OF THE MOST POWERFUL COMPUTERS IN THE WORLD,

AND WILL ENABLE US TO BETTER UNDERSTAND

OUR PLACE IN THE UNIVERSE.

Stephen's perhaps

the world's most famous scientist,

and one can't deny

that it's fantastic to have his support.

It really is a big day for Theoretical Cosmology in the UK.

THE NOTION OF 'FAME' IS A CURIOUS THING TO ME.

IN MY MIND, I AM A SCIENTIST WHO HAS BEEN LUCKY TO WORK

ON SOME OF THE FUNDAMENTAL MYSTERIES OF OUR UNIVERSE.

SOMETIMES I WONDER IF I AM AS FAMOUS

FOR MY WHEELCHAIR AND DISABILITIES

AS I AM FOR MY DISCOVERIES.

AS MY STUDENT DAYS WERE IN FULL SWING,

I WAS GRADUALLY BECOMING AWARE THAT ALL WAS NOT WELL.

DURING MY FINAL YEAR AT OXFORD, I HAD NOTICED

THAT I WAS GETTING RATHER CLUMSY IN MY MOVEMENTS,

AND I FELL OVER ONCE OR TWICE FOR NO APPARENT REASON.

BUT THEN ONE EVENING, LATE AT NIGHT,

SOMETHING MORE SERIOUS HAPPENED.

I recall the time that Steve fell down the stairs.

He fell downstairs all the way to the bottom.

He'd lost consciousness and then he couldn't remember who he was.

He couldn't remember where he was,

so it was a very serious thing.

WHEN I LOOK BACK AT THAT FALL, I DIDN'T REALIZE AT THE TIME

IT WAS A WARNING SIGN OF THINGS TO COME.

BUT I RECOVERED

AND SOON HAD MORE PRESSING THINGS ON MY MIND.

DESPITE MY RELAXED ATTITUDE TO STUDY,

I GRADUATED WITH FIRST-CLASS HONORS AND LEFT OXFORD,

FOR CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY TO BEGIN MY PHD.

YET LITTLE DID I KNOW,

I WOULD SOON BE DIAGNOSED WITH A CRIPPLING ILLNESS

THAT WOULD CHANGE MY LIFE FOREVER.

[Jonathan Wood] Stephen's speed of communication

has very gradually slowed down.

A few years ago he was still able to use his hand switch

and able to communicate

by clicking this switch on his wheelchair.

When he wasn't able to do that anymore,

we switched over to a switch that he mounted to his cheek.

But with him slowing down with that,

we've approached his sponsors

and so they've been looking into facial recognition.

This is a high-speed camera

which will allow us to see very fine details

on the facial expressions and this will help us to improve

the rate of your speech and input.

I HAVE HAD TO LEARN TO LIVE WITH MY SLOW RATE OF COMMUNICATION.

I CAN ONLY WRITE BY FLINCHING MY CHEEK MUSCLE

TO MOVE THE CURSOR ON MY COMPUTER.

ONE DAY I FEAR THIS MUSCLE WILL FAIL.

BUT I WOULD LIKE TO BE ABLE TO SPEAK MORE QUICKLY.

[Wood] Do you want me to change it to English alphabetic?

Yeah, I'm buzzing...

Yeah?

No?

Is that all OK,Stephen?

[Beeping]

Ah, I'm not getting this at all, Stephen.

Sometimes he can make a mistake and then he deletes it,

then he makes another mistake and deletes it,

and it can be frustrating there watching,

and he can see the frustration on his face as well.

I AM HOPING THIS CURRENT GENERATION OF SOFTWARE EXPERTS

CAN HARNESS WHAT LITTLE MOVEMENT I HAVE LEFT IN MY FACE

AND TURN IT INTO FASTER COMMUNICATION.

[Denman] You're current piece of software is a little dated.

Well, it's a lot dated, but you're very used to using it,

so we changed the method

by which your next word prediction works.

It can pretty much pick up the correct word every single time,

even if you're letters away from it.

THIS IS A BIG IMPROVEMENT OVER THE PREVIOUS VERSION.

I REALLY LIKE IT.

[Wood] That's amazing!

[Denman] I think it's actually gone brilliantly,

the stuff that we've showed him he was excited about.

Anything better than what he's doing

I think is gonna be a success.

And anything that doesn't

complicate Stephen's life any more than it is

I think that will be a success as well.

...THANK YOU VERY MUCH!

IN 1962, AGED 20,

WHEN I ARRIVED AT CAMBRIDGE TO BEGIN MY PHD,

I WAS ALSO DESPERATE FOR MY VOICE TO BE HEARD

AS I EMBARKED ON MY FIRST REAL SCIENTIFIC CHALLENGE.

AT THE TIME, TWO THEORIES BATTLED

TO CORRECTLY DESCRIBE THE UNIVERSE.

'THE STEADY STATE THEORY' HELD

THAT THE UNIVERSE HAD ALWAYS EXISTED

AND WOULD EXIST FOREVER.

BUT THERE WAS ANOTHER MORE EXCITING IDEA.

'THE BIG BANG THEORY' SUGGESTED THAT THE UNIVERSE HAD BEGUN

WITH A HUGE EXPLOSION.

I DECIDED TO TRY TO SEE IF I COULD SHED ANY LIGHT

ON HOW THE BIG BANG CAME TO BE.

BUT, BY NOW, THE IMMEDIATE CHALLENGE I WAS FACING

WAS TO KEEP CONTROL OF MY BODY.

MY MOVEMENTS WERE BECOMING EVEN MORE ERRATIC.

THOUGH I WAS DETERMINED NOT TO WORRY MY FAMILY,

SO I TRIED TO KEEP IT TO MYSELF.

Stephen went home for Christmas after one term,

and the symptoms that he had

had become too severe to hide from his parents.

His father insisted on taking him to the family doctor first,

and then that doctor recommended a specialist in London.

So after Christmas, Stephen and his father went to London

and St Bartholomew's Hospital.

I WAS IN HOSPITAL FOR TWO WEEKS

AND HAD A WIDE RANGE OF UNPLEASANT TESTS.

THEY TOOK A MUSCLE SAMPLE FROM MY ARM

AND STUCK ELECTRODES INTO ME.

THEN THEY INJECTED SOME LIQUID INTO MY SPINE AND TOOK X-RAYS.

EVENTUALLY, I WAS DIAGNOSED WITH AMYOTROPHICAL LATERAL SCLEROSIS,

OTHERWISE KNOWN AS MOTOR NEURON DISEASE OR ALS.

THE PROGNOSIS WAS NOT GOOD.

I WAS GIVEN 2 TO 3 YEARS TO LIVE.

[Mary] It was always hard to tell how Stephen took it,

because, one thing, he wouldn't talk about it.

You know, if you can't do anything about it,

you probably don't want to talk about it

or have people talk about it.

He did seem pretty depressed

and I don't think he accepted it emotionally.

The whole family went to pieces.

It was such a shock for everybody.

My aunt turned white in the night,

and we all thought, you know,

he was not going to be able to live for very long.

NOT KNOWING WHAT WAS GOING TO HAPPEN TO ME

OR HOW RAPIDLY THE DISEASE WOULD PROGRESS,

I WAS AT A LOOSE END.

THE DOCTORS TOLD ME TO GO BACK TO CAMBRIDGE

AND CARRY ON WITH MY RESEARCH.

BUT I WAS NOT MAKING MUCH PROGRESS

AND, ANYWAY, I MIGHT NOT LIVE LONG ENOUGH TO FINISH MY PHD.

I FELT SOMEWHAT OF A TRAGIC CHARACTER,

I TOOK TO LISTENING TO WAGNER.

(♫WAGNER: "The Annunciation of Death")

(♫Soprano singing)

WAGNER'S 'THE ANNUNCIATION OF DEATH' MADE

A GREAT IMPRESSION ON ME WHEN I FIRST HEARD IT,

AS I HAD JUST DEVELOPED MOTOR NEURON DISEASE.

I IDENTIFIED WITH IT, AND STILL DO TODAY.

BUT AS IT TURNED OUT, I DIDN'T DIE.

AT FIRST, THE DISEASE SEEMED TO PROGRESS FAIRLY RAPIDLY.

AS TIME WENT BY HOWEVER, IT SEEMED TO SLOW DOWN.

I ALSO BEGAN TO MAKE PROGRESS WITH MY WORK.

BUT WHAT REALLY MADE THE DIFFERENCE

WAS FALLING IN LOVE WITH A GIRL CALLED JANE WILDE,

WHOM I HAD MET ABOUT THE SAME TIME I WAS DIAGNOSED.

THIS GAVE ME SOMETHING TO LIVE FOR.

[Jane] Oh, he was great fun, he was eccentric.

I was really drawn to his very wide smile

and his beautiful grey eyes.

I think that's what made me fall in love with him.

We were going to defy the disease,

we were going to defy the doctors

and we were going to challenge the future.

JANE WAS BEAUTIFUL AND GENTLE,

AND SEEMINGLY UNDAUNTED BY THE HARSH REALITY OF MY ILLNESS.

FALLING IN LOVE AND GETTING ENGAGED

WAS THE MOTIVATION THAT I NEEDED.

IF I WERE TO GET MARRIED, I HAD TO GET A JOB,

AND TO GET A JOB I HAD TO FINISH MY PHD.

I THEREFORE STARTED WORKING HARD FOR THE FIRST TIME IN MY LIFE.

TO MY SURPRISE, I FOUND I LIKED IT.

Well, Stephen found his groove, he found his trajectory,

and when Stephen finds a trajectory, he pursues it.

[Jane] It was terribly exciting because he had been so depressed

and here he was with a new lease of life.

PERHAPS BECAUSE I REALIZED I MIGHT NOT HAVE MUCH TIME,

I RENEWED MY EFFORTS TO TACKLE THE BIG QUESTION IN COSMOLOGY

IN THE EARLY 60'S:

DID THE UNIVERSE HAVE A BEGINNING OR NOT?

MANY SCIENTISTS WERE INSTINCTIVELY OPPOSED

TO THE IDEA OF A BIG BANG,

BECAUSE IT IMPLIES A MOMENT OF CREATION.

THE HAND OF GOD.

FOR ME, THOUGH, RELIGION HAS NO ROLE TO PLAY IN PHYSICS,

SO I WONDERED IF THE BIG BANG COULD HAVE HAPPENED ON ITS OWN

WITHOUT THE NEED FOR A GOD TO GET IT GOING.

THE KEY WAS IN THE THEORY OF BLACK HOLES.

AT THE TIME, PHYSICIST ROGER PENROSE WAS WORKING

ON WHAT HAPPENS WHEN A STAR COLLAPSES

UNDER THE FORCE OF ITS OWN GRAVITY.

PENROSE CLAIMED THE STAR WOULD CRUSH ITSELF

TO A TINY POINT OF INFINITE DENSITY,

WHERE EVEN TIME ITSELF WOULD COME TO A STOP.

HE CALLED IT 'A SINGULARITY', THE HEART OF A BLACK HOLE.

[Penrose] When I was doing this work

on the gravitation collapse, black holes,

I'd never heard of Stephen.

So I had a little private session,

and he was somebody who picked up ideas quickly.

He stood out as being someone

who asked extremely awkward questions,

I do remember that!

I WORKED RELENTLESSLY TO SEE

IF I COULD APPLY THE NOTION OF 'A SINGULARITY'

TO THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE.

THEN SUDDENLY, I HAD IT.

I IMAGINED GOING BACKWARDS TO THE BEGINNING,

AND WORKED OUT THAT RIGHT AT THE START

THE UNIVERSE WOULD HAVE BEEN A SINGULARITY TOO.

HERE, TIME STOPS,

YOU'VE REACHED THE TRUE BEGINNING OF EVERYTHING.

THERE IS NO PREVIOUS TIME

IN WHICH THE UNIVERSE COULD HAVE HAD A CAUSE.

IT SPONTANEOUSLY CREATED ITSELF IN 'THE BIG BANG'.

The work that Stephen did basically showed

there was a singular state

which couldn't have come from a previous universe.

So you could say it is a theory which tells you

that the universe had a beginning.

BY ADDRESSING THE QUESTION OF 'CREATION'

THAT PHYSICISTS HAD AVOIDED,

I HAD CONTROVERSIALLY SHOWN THE LAWS OF NATURE SUGGEST

THERE IS NO NEED FOR A CREATOR OR GOD.

THE UNIVERSE JUST CAME INTO EXISTENCE ALL BY ITSELF.

MY FINDINGS ABOUT THE BIG BANG

AND THE POSSIBLE BEGINNING OF THE UNIVERSE

GAVE ME THE RESULTS I NEEDED TO ENHANCE MY PHD.

I APPLIED FOR A RESEARCH FELLOWSHIP

AT GONVILLE AND CAIUS COLLEGE WHICH PROVED SUCCESSFUL.

THE MONEY FROM THE FELLOWSHIP MEANT

THAT JANE AND I COULD GET MARRIED,

WHICH WE DID IN JULY 1965.

[Jane] We had the maximum number of guests

in the tiny chapel.

Stephen was walking with a stick

and he was losing strength in his arms.

We went off for our honeymoon to upstate New York

to a physics conference at Cornell University,

and there I got to know that a goddess in Stephen's life

with whom I was sharing the marriage was physics!

AFTER RETURNING FROM OUR HONEYMOON,

JANE AND I BOUGHT A HOUSE IN LITTLE ST MARY'S LANE

IN THE CENTER OF CAMBRIDGE.

IN MARCH 1966,

I COMPLETED AND SUBMITTED MY PHD THESIS

WITH THE HELP OF JANE WHO HAD SPENT MANY PAINSTAKING HOURS

AT THE TYPEWRITER, TYPING IT UP.

THE FINDINGS IN MY THESIS GREATLY ENHANCED MY REPUTATION

IN COSMOLOGY.

[Penrose] Stephen's profile certainly did...rocket.

It's important to know that there was a Big Bang,

because that governs our cosmology.

It's also important to know what it was like

and why it was like what it was like.

Because when you trace back everything in nature,

you get ultimately to the Big Bang.

And the fact that it was a singular state

is very much part of that understanding.

Stephen, I'll just do a quick recap of my PhD.

MY EARLY WORK WENT SOME WAY TO ANSWERING

HOW OUR UNIVERSE BEGAN.

BUT THERE IS STILL PLENTY MORE TO FIND OUT.

BRAVE WORLD BLACK HOLES SHOULD RADIATE IF THEY AREN'T EXTREME,

BUT SLOWLY.

AT CAMBRIDGE, I MENTOR A NEW GENERATION OF COSMOLOGISTS

WHO ARE TACKLING EVER TOUGHER QUESTIONS.

IT'S THIS WORK THAT I ENJOY THE MOST.

YOU MIGHT AS WELL SAY THE SCHWARZSCHILD SOLUTION

DOESN'T EXIST BECAUSE IT RADIATES.

Ah, I'll have to think about it.

He's in the office every day

for us PhD students, it's great,

he's there for us if we want him to.

So it's a great privilege.

I HAVE ALWAYS WANTED TO SHARE MY ENTHUSIASM AND EXCITEMENT.

THERE'S NOTHING LIKE THE EUREKA MOMENT

OF DISCOVERING SOMETHING THAT NO ONE KNEW BEFORE.

I WON'T COMPARE IT TO SEX, BUT IT LASTS LONGER.

MY NEXT MAJOR EUREKA MOMENT HAPPENED

WHEN I WAS LEAST EXPECTING IT.

IN THE AUTUMN OF 1970,

I HAD BEEN CONCENTRATING MY RESEARCH ON BLACK HOLES.

BY NOW, JANE AND I HAD TWO CHILDREN,

ROBERT AGED 3 YEARS AND LUCY WHO HAD JUST BEEN BORN.

ONE EVENING IN NOVEMBER, AS I WAS GETTING READY FOR BED,

AN IDEA CHARGED THROUGH MY BRAIN.

ONLY COSMOLOGISTS WOULD TRULY GRASP IT,

BUT IT WOULD GREATLY ENHANCE MY REPUTATION.

[Jane] I was sitting on one side of the bed

and Stephen was sitting on the other side of the bed

tussling with his buttons.

And this was one evening

when he took longer about it than usual.

So I finished feeding the baby,

and then he said, "I think I've solved a problem."

SUDDENLY, I HAD A REVELATION

ABOUT WHAT HAPPENS WHEN TWO BLACK HOLES COLLIDE AND MERGE.

I REALIZED THAT THE SURFACE AREA OF THE NEW BLACK HOLE

COULD ONLY GET BIGGER,

IT COULD NEVER DECREASE IN SIZE.

THIS MAY SOUND LIKE AN OBSCURE DISCOVERY,

BUT IT REVEALED SOME FUNDAMENTAL PROPERTIES OF THE UNIVERSE.

EVEN THOUGH FEW PHYSICISTS COULD UNDERSTAND IT AT THE TIME,

FOR ME, IT WAS VERY EXCITING.

I WAS WRITING THE RULE BOOK FOR BLACK HOLES.

NOW MY VOICE WOULD REALLY BE HEARD.

[Jane] I knew he'd done something very important

so I was absolutely thrilled.

And this of course made his name in a big way in Physics,

he'd been recognized as somebody with great potential,

but now he really had a discovery to his name.

BY THE EARLY 1970'S,

MY CAREER IN COSMOLOGY AND MY UNDERSTANDINGS OF THE UNIVERSE

WERE BEGINNING TO BLOSSOM.

BUT AS MY MIND GREW IN CONFIDENCE,

MY BODY WAS GOING INTO A RAPID DECLINE.

AT HOME, I WAS RELUCTANT TO ASK FOR HELP FROM OUTSIDERS

AND WAS RELYING UPON JANE MORE AND MORE

TO HELP ME GET UP IN THE MORNING,

GET DRESSED AND GET TO WORK.

AND WHEN I GOT TO CAMBRIDGE,

I NEEDED MY STUDENTS TO HELP ME TOO.

Are we signing this?

I first met Stephen in 1972 at Cambridge

when I became his PhD student.

He was in a wheelchair but a push wheelchair,

and so I also had a role in helping him

with eating and moving around,

having coffee and tea and things like that,

so it was a rather unusual relationship.

In those days, Stephen of course was still speaking

with his voice but his voice was still weak,

so it wasn't so easy to hear what he was saying.

[Indistinct speech]

And indeed, when I traveled with Stephen,

I would often be acting as an interpreter.

So Stephen would say something

and if the person he was speaking to couldn't understand,

I would then repeat it.

ALTHOUGH I WAS BECOMING INCREASINGLY TRAPPED

INSIDE MY DISFUNCTIONING BODY,

FORTUNATELY MY MIND WAS UNAFFECTED.

I HAD A NEW, BIG QUESTION

I FELT COMPELLED TO FIND THE ANSWER TO.

MY REPUTATION IN THE FIELD OF BLACK HOLES WAS ESTABLISHED

AS WE ENTERED A GOLDEN AGE.

BUT MY NEXT DISCOVERY WOULD THROW

ALL OF COSMOLOGISTS' FINDINGS TO DATE UP IN THE AIR.

THE CALCULATIONS I WAS WORKING ON

INVOLVED WHAT HAPPENED TO PARTICLES

ON THE EDGE OF A BLACK HOLE

THAT WERE SUCKED IN AND DISAPPEARED.

TO MY GREAT SURPRISE,

I FOUND THAT SOME PARTICLES COULD ESCAPE THE BLACK HOLE,

WHICH SEEMED TO MAKE A MOCKERY OF THE KNOWN LAWS OF PHYSICS.

AT FIRST, I THOUGHT THIS MUST BE A MISTAKE.

[Carr] I do remember when he was working on this problem,

and indeed I even remember when he told me

he was working out the quantum effects of these black holes

and he seemed to be getting this flux of particles coming out.

When Stephen's thinking about a problem,

he will become obviously obsessed with it.

[Jane] It was a very intense period.

It was when he could be surrounded by children

and not notice what was going on,

because he was like Rodin's Thinker

with his head in his hands,

often accompanied by Wagner

blaring out from the loud speakers.

(♫Opera music blaring)

He used to drive me spare!

FINALLY, AFTER MONTHS OF EXHAUSTIVE WORK,

I FOUND WHAT I WAS LOOKING FOR.

CONTRARY TO ALL PREVIOUSLY HELD THEORIES ON BLACK HOLES,

I DISCOVERED THAT THEY MUST EMIT PARTICLES

LIKE A HOT BODY LOSING HEAT.

THIS 'EVAPORATION' MEANT, IN THEORY,

A BLACK HOLE COULD EVENTUALLY DISAPPEAR.

I ANNOUNCED MY FINDINGS ON ST VALENTINE'S DAY, IN 1974,

AT A COSMOLOGY CONFERENCE IN OXFORD

TO A PACKED AUDIENCE.

[Jane] He came to an end.

And there was absolute silence in the lecture hall...

And I can see it now.

The Chairman of the lecture jumped to his feet

and instead of saying, "I must thank Professor Hawking

"for his remarkable lecture,"

he said, "This is preposterous!

"I've never heard anything like it!"

The whole place was abuzz,

people couldn't believe what they had heard.

MY CONTROVERSIAL DISCOVERY INITIALLY SHOCKED

THE WORLD OF PHYSICS.

BUT EVENTUALLY IT BECAME ACCEPTED

AND KNOWN AS 'HAWKING RADIATION'.

I AM PROUD TO HAVE DISCOVERED IT.

This was a remarkably important result,

because it was a result which unified

Relativity Theory and Quantum Theory and Thermodynamics.

And physics is really all about unifying ideas.

These three subjects seemed to be brought together

and this was the first time we had seen

that kind of unification.

Every now and then in physics you get a result

which is so beautiful,

it really is like rolling candy on the tongue.

I was enormously proud,

enormously proud of what Stephen had achieved.

AFTER I ANNOUNCED MY THEORY OF HAWKING RADIATION

AND A LATER DISCOVERY OF EXPLODING BLACK HOLES,

A PROCESSION OF INTERNATIONAL AWARDS FOLLOWED.

IN THE SPRING OF 1974,

I WAS INDUCTED INTO THE ROYAL SOCIETY,

ONE OF THE MOST PRESTIGIOUS BODIES OF SCIENTISTS.

MY NAME NOW SAT ALONGSIDE ISAAC NEWTON AND CHARLES DARWIN.

A YEAR LATER, I RECEIVED THE GOLD MEDAL FOR SCIENCE

FROM POPE PAUL VI.

AGED 32, I WAS THRILLED

TO HAVE SUCH HIGH-PROFILE AWARDS TO MY NAME,

AND EXCITING NEW OPPORTUNITIES BECKONED.

DOORS STARTED TO OPEN FOR ME.

I WAS INVITED ON A VISITING PROFESSORSHIP

TO THE CALIFORNIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY IN LOS ANGELES.

THIS MEANT MOVING WITH THE WHOLE FAMILY FOR THE ACADEMIC YEAR,

AND THE LURE OF THE AMERICAN WEST COAST WAS IRRESISTIBLE.

[Thorne] We were in the midst of a revolution

in the applications of Quantum Physics to Black Holes.

I was simply hoping to have a year in which

the result would be better science

done by Cal Tech scientists,

my research group and others,

and better science done by Stephen.

LIFE IN CALIFORNIA WAS VERY DIFFERENT FROM CAMBRIDGE.

I NOW HAD A LARGE SALARY AND A BIG HOUSE,

JUST A STONE'S THROW FROM THE UNIVERSITY.

[Jane] Well, America could've been on another planet.

We were living in the lap of luxury.

No expense spared to make us welcome.

And this great gift of an electric wheelchair

provided for Stephen's use.

YET ALTHOUGH WE HAD ALL THE MOD CONS

THAT AMERICA COULD OFFER US,

IT WAS BECOMING CLEAR THAT THE DEMANDS OF HOME LIFE ON JANE

WERE BECOMING TOO INTENSE.

LOOKING AFTER TWO YOUNG CHILDREN

AND TRYING TO COPE WITH MY EVER INCREASING DISABILITIES,

WERE CAUSING TOO MUCH STRAIN.

[Jane] I could not see my way

through what it was going to demand of me.

And this wonderful idea came to me.

If we were going to go to California

and the students were going to come too,

why didn't we offer them a bed in our house

in return for some help with Stephen?

[Carr] Of course it's not the normal relationship

between a student and a PhD Supervisor.

But for me that was a good deal,

because I lived rent-free

in exchange for helping Stephen out around the home,

bathtimes and helping with meals and things like that.

BUT THE EXCITEMENT OF A NEW LIFE IN CALIFORNIA

WAS HARSHLY INTERRUPTED BY MY MOTOR NEURON DISEASE.

THE PHYSICAL SYMPTOMS TOOK AN IRREVERSIBLE TURN FOR THE WORSE.

[Thorne] That was the year he lost the use of his hands.

When he arrived, he could still write equations,

though with some difficulty.

By the end of the year, he couldn't.

So in terms of his physical development,

it was a more difficult period.

On the other hand, in terms of his mental development,

as he gradually lost the use of his hands

he further developed his unique ways of thinking

by manipulating shapes and topologies in his head

and he became even more advanced than the rest of us.

BY LOSING THE FINER DEXTERITY OF MY HANDS,

I WAS FORCED TO TRAVEL THROUGH THE UNIVERSE IN MY MIND

AND TRY TO VISUALIZE THE WAYS IN WHICH IT WORKED.

He could move at lightning speed

across the frontiers of knowledge

and see things that nobody else could see.

The disability forced him to carry himself

in new ways, new directions.

TURNING PROBLEMS OVER IN MY MIND

HAS BEEN MY MAIN METHOD OF DISCOVERY

FOR NEARLY HALF MY LIFE NOW.

WHILE ALL AROUND ME PEOPLE HAVE BUZZED AWAY,

DEEP IN CONVERSATION,

I HAVE OFTEN BEEN TRANSPORTED AFAR,

LOST INSIDE MY OWN THOUGHTS,

TRYING TO FATHOM HOW THE UNIVERSE WORKS.

WHEN WE RETURNED FROM CALIFORNIA IN THE SUMMER OF 1975,

MUCH OF THE FUTURE, LIVING WITH MY ILLNESS, SEEMED UNCERTAIN.

SO JANE AND I TOOK COMFORT

IN THE SECURITY OF A HAPPY FAMILY LIFE.

ALTHOUGH MY INCREASING DISABILITIES

WERE GREATLY AFFECTING MY LIFE MORE AND MORE,

I WAS FIERCELY RELUCTANT TO ACCEPT NURSING CARE.

I WAS CONVINCED I COULD BUILD A TEAM OF PEOPLE AROUND ME,

WHO COULD CARE FOR ME IN THEIR OWN WAY.

We didn't have any nurses at all in the department,

that was part of my role.

I would look after him.

You'd like to reply to that one?

Well, I had to wipe his nose, comb his hair for him

if it was falling down into his eyes.

I could see that when he was eating or drinking

this could cause a problem and a very big one for me

because I didn't have any nursing training whatsoever.

[Coughing]

He would have these coughing fits, quite severe.

You'd think he was going to choke and die at any moment.

I felt responsible to give him the best care that I could,

but it was scary thinking what might happen to him.

[Jane] One night Stephen had the most horrendous choking fit

and I just didn't know what to,

and everything just shook, windows rattled, doors shook.

It was the most terrifying experience

and it could've been critical.

ALTHOUGH I WAS ABLE TO LIVE AND WORK AS I WANTED,

I WAS NEVER REALLY ABLE TO UNDERSTAND THE STRAIN

IT WAS PLACING ON THE PEOPLE AROUND ME.

ESPECIALLY MY WIFE, JANE.

[Jane] I was beginning to feel

that there were two faces to our situation.

One was the public image, the Wunderkind of Physics,

erm...who had overcome Motor Neuron Disease,

who was whizzing around the world in his wheelchair

to receive honors and medals.

And the other side, the other face, was the home situation

where sometimes the illness forced us

into our own little Black Hole.

THE DECLINE IN MY HEALTH WAS A STARK REMINDER

THAT TIME WAS AGAINST ME.

YET DESPITE THE PRESSURES ON MY FAMILY,

I WAS DETERMINED TO REALIZE A LIFE-LONG AMBITION

BY WRITING A POPULAR BOOK

ABOUT HOW THE UNIVERSE HAD BEGUN.

I WANTED THE BOOK TO BE READ

BY MILLIONS OF PEOPLE AROUND THE WORLD

LIKE A BEST-SELLING AIRPORT NOVEL.

I did not think it would work,

because basically

if you look at all the other books in airports

there are none like that!

HOWEVER, I FELT SURE THAT THE MASS MARKET WOULD WANT TO KNOW

ABOUT HOW THE UNIVERSE BEGAN.

BY 1984, I HAD COMPLETED THE FIRST CHAPTER.

There was great interest in him, he was a great public figure,

so actually every publisher in town

was interested in the book.

I guess we had a contract ready for him to sign,

and I had heard that he was gonna be in Chicago,

so I was there and waiting.

Then this car pulls into the parking lot,

and this gentleman gets out,

and he goes back to the passenger door

and scoops what looks like a life-size broken doll

into his arms,

and brings it back to the wheelchair

and gently eases the doll into place.

And suddenly the doll becomes animated.

As soon as that hand is on the controls,

the thing literally kicks into life,

spins around two or three times and takes off.

And Brian shouts to me, I'm out of my car, "Is that you?

"Is that Peter Guzzardi?"

and I said, "Yes, it's me!"

He said, "Quick, follow us, that's Professor Hawking!"

I SIGNED UP WITH PETER,

AND SET TO WORK COMPLETING THE FIRST DRAFT OF MY BOOK.

I TRIED TO SIMPLIFY THE PHYSICS AS BEST I COULD,

AND BY THE END, I WAS PLEASED

AND FELT IT WAS IN PRETTY GOOD SHAPE.

BUT PETER WASN'T CONVINCED.

I was pretty disappointed.

Yeah, I thought this was going to be really difficult.

But I just decided we'd made a substantial commitment to it

and, by God, we were gonna do this book.

So let's just start slogging

and then maybe lightning would strike,

or something wonderful would happen.

[Rasping breathing]

LIGHTNING DID INDEED STRIKE,

BUT NOT IN THE WAY THAT PETER AND I WERE HOPING.

THAT SUMMER I HAD TAKEN A BREAK FROM RE-WRITING

TO TRAVEL TO SWITZERLAND ON HOLIDAY.

BUT WHILE I WAS THERE, I CAUGHT A CHEST INFECTION

THAT DEVELOPED INTO PNEUMONIA AND QUICKLY BECAME VERY SERIOUS.

I WAS PUT INTO A DRUG-INDUCED COMA

AND ONTO A LIFE SUPPORT MACHINE.

THE DOCTORS THOUGHT I WAS SO FAR GONE,

THEY OFFERED TO JANE TO TURN OFF THE MACHINE.

BUT SHE REFUSED.

FINALLY, JANE INSISTED THAT I WAS FLOWN BACK TO CAMBRIDGE.

I remember very vividly walking through the doors

and being really quite rocked

by what I saw when I got in there.

And I realized that Stephen was really very, very ill.

Things were not looking good.

He could have died.

We were just told that he couldn't breathe,

and of course we knew how weak he was at that time

and he had been ill before.

And we all knew that he was on borrowed time.

THE WEEKS OF INTENSIVE CARE WERE THE DARKEST OF MY LIFE.

I FELT I HAD ALWAYS FOUGHT MY ILLNESS SO HARD

THAT I WAS NOT PREPARED TO GIVE IN SO EASILY.

SLOWLY, THE DRUGS BEGAN TO WORK AND THE INFECTION PASSED.

BUT THE SURGEONS HAD TO PERFORM A TRACHEOTOMY,

TO ALLOW ME TO BREATHE,

WHICH MADE A SMALL INCISION IN MY WINDPIPE

AND CONNECTED ME TO A VENTILATOR,

VIA THE HOLE IN MY THROAT.

AS A RESULT, I WAS NOW ROBBED OF THE ABILITY TO TALK.

I FACED A LIFE UNABLE TO PROPERLY COMMUNICATE.

It was a very worrying time for everyone around him.

And you're thinking will he ever be able to talk again?

Or, how will you work if you can't talk?

So yes it was a very bleak time.

ALL HOPES OF FINISHING MY BOOK, AND PERHAPS EVEN MY CAREER,

SEEMED TO BE OVER.

It was very tense for everybody it was incredibly tense.

It was difficult to think that

Stephen was going to come out of there and be OK.

AS THE WEEKS OF MY RECOVERY TURNED INTO MONTHS,

IT BECAME OBVIOUS TO ME AND EVERYONE AROUND ME,

THAT BEING ON A VENTILATOR MEANT

THAT I NEEDED CONSTANT CARE AND MONITORING TO KEEP ALIVE.

This was a very big realization

that things were going to dramatically change

and that this was going to be needing 24hr a day nursing care.

Their lives were never ever going to be the same again.

Once nurses came into the house, life changed

and that was very difficult for all of us.

For me, for the children,

home was no longer home.

There was no privacy, no privacy,

because the walls were listening to everything.

DESPITE THE INTRUSIONS ON FAMILY LIFE,

WITH THE NURSES HELP, I GREW STRONGER.

YET, I STILL FELT TRAPPED INSIDE MY BODY.

FOR A TIME, AT HOME,

I COULD COMMUNICATE ONLY BY RAISING MY EYEBROWS

WHEN SOMEONE POINTED TO LETTERS ON A CARD.

ALL THOUGHTS OF WORK, AND FINISHING MY BOOK, GREW DISTANT.

BUT THEN QUITE UNEXPECTEDLY,

A GLIMMER OF HOPE CAME FROM ACROSS THE WATER.

I got a call from a physicist and he said,

"I know you're working on computer systems

"for people with A.L.S.

"and I've got someone in England,

"he's a Professor of Physics who lost the ability to speak

"and he needs a system."

This system was called Equalizer

and the top part of the screen was a set of letters,

rows of letters

and then the bottom part of the screen was a row of words,

36 very frequently used words.

So he could choose the top part or the bottom part.

He learnt that very quickly.

I was blown away by it.

He was scanning just amazingly fast.

I HAD ENOUGH MOVEMENT IN MY RIGHT HAND,

TO BE ABLE TO CLICK THE COMPUTER SYSTEM

AND WRITE THE WORDS I WANTED.

FINALLY, I WAS FREE TO COMMUNICATE AGAIN.

I WAS KEEN TO MAKE UP THE LOST TIME,

THAT MY ILLNESS HAD FORCED UPON ME.

I HAD A STACK OF NOTES FROM PETER GUZZARDI,

SUGGESTING CHANGES AND CLARIFICATIONS TO MY BOOK,

BUT I NEEDED PRACTICAL HELP WITH THE RE-WRITE AT MY END,

SOMEONE WHO COULD ACT AS A GO-BETWEEN.

[Voice on phone]

The people in the States

were speaking on the speaker phone in his office,

and Stephen was writing

using his new computer system on the screen,

and I would say what he was saying over the phone.

We were just sort of 'cobbling it together'

I think is probably the right term.

I had no idea what was going on,

on Stephen's side of this,

where it seems that

he was persuading Stephen that this was OK,

helping Stephen off the walls if Stephen started to think,

"Why the hell am I spending all this time

"making this idiot understand this basic stuff."

AFTER MONTHS OF WORK, THE RE-WRITE WAS COMPLETE.

NONE OF US REALLY KNEW WHETHER THE BOOK WOULD BE LIKED,

AND WOULD SELL AS WE ALL HOPED FOR.

ALL WE COULD DO NOW, WAS GIVE IT A TITLE,

"A BRIEF HISTORY OF TIME",

SEND IT OFF TO THE PRINTERS, AND WAIT.

BUT TO EVERYONE'S SURPRISE, THE BOOK SOLD COPY AFTER COPY.

AND VERY QUICKLY BOOKSHOPS WERE SELLING OUT.

When it hit the bestseller list you are obviously surprised.

It was a pleasant surprise

and it certainly was a surprise I don't think anyone said,

"Oh yes, we knew all along this was going to be a major hit."

[Al Zuckerman] I had no expectation that it would be

the No.1 Best Selling Book in the world.

I mean not just here but Germany, Slovenia,

France, Italy - everywhere in the world.

It was the hope that someone had found the mystery of life.

And from then on it was just a race to keep the book in print,

and marching toward a million copies sold.

[Laughs] It was very gratifying.

In the 38 years that I have been in this business,

I don't think I've ever had a book

that stayed at the top of the bestseller list that long.

I was amazed at how well it did.

I think it worked.

He inspired people.

He gave people some overall sense

of the birth of the universe,

and it made this subject become a subject of conversation

amongst people in all walks of life.

[Female Newsreader] Professor Stephen Hawking's book,

A Brief History of Time,

an unlikely but successful publishing phenomenon--

[David Frost] A Brief History of time has sold 8 million copies--

[Male presenter] A popular book about his theories

is already topping the American Bestsellers list--

[Female presenter] The hugely successful

A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking--

A BRIEF HISTORY OF TIME STAYED IN THE BEST SELLER LIST

FOR OVER FOUR YEARS,

AND ENTERED INTO THE GUINNESS BOOK OF RECORDS FOR DOING SO.

TO DATE, OVER 10 MILLION COPIES HAVE BEEN SOLD WORLDWIDE.

OVER THE NEXT FEW YEARS A LOT OF FUSS WAS MADE ABOUT MY BOOK.

I BECAME FAMOUS NATIONALLY AND AROUND THE WORLD,

AS IT WAS TRANSLATED INTO 40 DIFFERENT LANGUAGES.

[Irish TV host] I'm delighted to welcome

Professor Stephen Hawking

[Audience applause]

I WAS INVITED ONTO CHAT SHOWS...

I think people do think of you as a genius,

not just as a disabled genius

AND, I EVEN MADE A CAMEO APPEARANCE ON STAR TREK,

MY FAVORITE SCI-FI SHOW.

- You are bluffing.

- WRONG AGAIN, ALBERT.

I ENJOYED THE MEDIA ATTENTION,

AND WITNESSING EVERYDAY PEOPLE, GETTING MORE INVOLVED

IN UNDERSTANDING THE PHYSICS OF OUR UNIVERSE.

BUT, SOON THE PRESS WANTED TO KNOW MORE ABOUT ME,

MY ILLNESS, AND MY FAMILY LIFE.

He wanted this worldwide celebrity, he enjoys that.

And part of his whole outlook

on life and his science is that it is fun.

And celebrity was fun and he embraced it

in a way that was not necessarily very good

for the family, the children.

So this was a further real problem in the marriage.

[Jane Hawking] We were engulfed and swept away,

by this great wave of fame and fortune.

And I have to say that really

it all got rather too much for me to cope with.

And I suppose that's when we ceased to be

as happy as we had been.

And when the marriage broke up,

I felt as if a rug,

not just had been pulled up from under my feet.

But the earth had opened up under that rug

and swallowed me up.

Because the marriage had been my raison d'etre.

And it took me quite a little while

to recover my sense of my own identity.

IT WAS CLEAR THAT MY LIFE AND JANE'S

WERE BEGINNING TO FOLLOW DIFFERENT PATHS.

IN 1990, WE SEPARATED, AND WERE DIVORCED IN 1995.

[Photographers shouting]

IN THE SAME YEAR, I ANNOUNCED MY ENGAGEMENT TO ELAINE MASON,

AND MARRIED AGAIN.

ELAINE HAD BEEN ONE OF MY NURSES

FROM THE START OF MY 24 HOUR WRAP AROUND CARE.

OVER THE YEARS, WE HAD BECOME EXTREMELY CLOSE,

AS JANE AND I DRIFTED APART,

EACH SEEKING COMFORT AND LOVE THROUGH NEW RELATIONSHIPS.

[Indistinct dialogue]

[Kitty Ferguson] Elaine became closer to Stephen

than any of the other nurses.

When he traveled

he would prefer to have her with him over the others.

It became a close relationship.

MY MARRIAGE TO ELAINE, WAS PASSIONATE AND TEMPESTUOUS.

SHE SAVED MY LIFE ON SEVERAL OCCASIONS.

AND WE WERE TOGETHER FOR 11 YEARS,

BEFORE DIVORCING IN 2006.

THE LOW POINT

WAS WHEN THE PRESS PRINTED UNSUBSTANTIATED ALLEGATIONS

THAT I HAD BEEN THE VICTIM OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE.

TO MY MIND, THIS WAS A GROSS INVASION OF OUR PRIVACY,

AND IT WAS AN EXTREMELY HURTFUL AND DAMAGING TIME FOR US BOTH.

UNFORTUNATELY, BEING IN THE PUBLIC EYE

CAN HAVE ITS DRAWBACKS.

LIVING A VERY PUBLIC LIFE, DOES HOWEVER HAVE ITS UPSIDES TOO.

AT WORK, I AM OFTEN VISITED BY FAMOUS PEOPLE,

WHO SHARE AN INTEREST IN SPACE AND THE UNIVERSE WE LIVE IN.

SOMETIMES, EVEN ASTRONAUTS DROP BY.

[Buzz Aldrin] My voice is listened to

because I did something 43 years ago.

And I have the sense of humans reaching outward and succeeding.

But I believe that he is valued more

because he has the pure analytical

combined with the philosophical,

that comes from his understanding of

the beginnings and the ends of the universe.

I HAVE OFTEN DREAMT ABOUT TRAVELING THROUGH SPACE MYSELF.

RECENTLY, I GOT CLOSER

BY EXPERIENCING A ZERO GRAVITY FLIGHT.

IT WAS ALSO A MOMENT THAT TEMPORARILY

STRIPPED ME OF MY DISABILITY.

A FEELING OF TRUE FREEDOM.

[Indistinct chatter]

I BELIEVE THE PIONEERING EFFORTS

OF THE EARLY ASTRONAUTS LIKE BUZZ,

NEED TO BE TAKEN ON TO THE NEXT LEVEL.

I AM CONVINCED THAT ONE DAY,

HUMANS WILL HAVE TO COLONIZE OTHER PLANETS

IN ORDER TO SURVIVE.

[Launch Control Center on radio]

SPACE TRAVEL WILL BECOME AN EVERYDAY NECESSITY.

[Control Center] How about that.

Like the refrigerator.

UNTIL THEN,

I HOPE TO BE ONE OF THE FIRST ORDINARY PEOPLE

TO BLAST OFF INTO SPACE.

BUT I WILL NEED A LITTLE HELP.

[Richard Branson] I couldn't think of anybody in the world

that we'd rather send to space than Stephen Hawking.

We haven't offered anybody a free ticket.

But he's the one person in the world we felt,

"We'd love to invite you to space."

And it was incredible when he accepted,

and I went up and saw him that day,

and he told me to hurry up and get the space ship built

because he wasn't going to live forever,

and hopefully next year we'll take him up.

And I think that he feels if he goes into space personally

he can lead the way.

MY HOPES FOR SPACE TRAVEL HAVE BEEN WITH ME THROUGHOUT MY LIFE.

BUT AS MY 'WHEELS' ARE STILL FIRMLY PLANTED HERE

ON PLANET EARTH, I WILL KEEP ON DREAMING.

AS I AM NOW CONSIDERED, A SO-CALLED 'FAMOUS' PERSON,

MORE AND MORE OF MY TIME IS TAKEN UP WITH MY PUBLIC LIFE.

FOR THIS, I RELY GREATLY UPON MY TEAM AROUND ME.

You are really the gatekeeper in this role.

You get the general fan mail, hero worshipping him really.

Then you get people who are obsessed with religionand God,

and the fact that

Prof. Hawking doesn't appear to have a Godas such

that they can feel comfortable about.

So you get a huge range of what we call the God Letters.

And then you get letters from the disabled.

Serious scientists.

Mostly people full of admiration for Professor Hawking

and what he has achieved.

He is a great iconic figure

and he enjoys his public appearances.

And it's great that, you know,

he's still very engaged with everything that surrounds him.

...SO IF YOU WANT TO EXPLORE THE INSIDE OF A BLACK HOLE

CHOOSE A BIG ONE.

[Laughter and applause]

PEOPLE HAVE SEARCHED FOR MINI BLACK HOLES OF THIS MASS,

BUT HAVE, SO FAR, NOT FOUND ANY.

THIS IS A PITY, BECAUSE IF THEY HAD,

I WOULD HAVE GOT A NOBEL PRIZE!

[Applause]

IF YOU HAD ASKED ME 40 YEARS AGO IF I EVER THOUGHT

I WOULD BE TALKING IN FRONT OF A SELL-OUT CROWD,

AND BE A PART OF POPULAR CULTURE.

I WOULD HAVE LAUGHED.

BUT, IF BY GETTING INVOLVED WITH THE ZEITGEIST THAT IS UPON US,

HAS ENCOURAGED PEOPLE TO QUESTION OUR UNIVERSE,

THEN I AM OK.

[All] Stephen Hawking!

The world's smartest man!

What are you doing here?

IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR TROUBLE, YOU'VE FOUND IT.

Yeah, just try me--

Oh!

[Jim Carrey] He's willing to teach people

in whatever way he has to teach people.

You can't take yourself too seriously

no matter how intelligent or how important

the work you are doing is.

That's for me!

This is such an honor.

Here, it's for you.

Hello.

Whenever I do a talk show, I'm trying to think of ways

to do things that are completely different

and completely ridiculous.

Most people see 'Dumb And Dumber'

and they assume that's who I am,

so I thought wouldn't it be fun to partner up

with the smartest man on the earth.

[Cell phone]

Oh!

Excuse me.

Hello.

[Audience laughs]

Oh, hi.

Stephen Hawking!

I can't believe this!

He was wonderful.

He was just fantastic.

I was expecting him to be so serious about himself

and I think it was a relief for him

to completely make fun of the whole thing.

It's amazing!

Yeah, I know.

He did a great job of doing the lines that I'd written.

And he was just gung ho the whole time.

OK.

[Audience laughs and cheers]

No, you're a genius!

No, you are!

After we did the routine we kind of struck up a friendship,

so I was invited to his home

and one of the funny highlights of the night was that

while we were having dinner, I asked him, just for a picture,

"Could you run over my foot with your wheelchair?"

So I have a picture of me grimacing in agony.

It was daft.

So it was wonderful to be there,

wonderful to talk to him and ask him important questions like,

"How many Higgs Boson does it take to screw in a light bulb?"

And, uh, I think he's still struggling with that.

[Cinema projector whirrs]

[Church bells]

[Bicycle bell]

Look out!

IT HAS BEEN A LOT OF FUN, AND ALSO VERY STRANGE,

TO SEE MYSELF DEPICTED IN SO MANY WAYS.

BUT, PERHAPS THE STRANGEST,

IS TO HAVE HAD PART OF MY EARLY LIFE, PORTRAYED BY AN ACTOR.

I felt a huge onus of responsibility

to get that part of his life right.

There was so much that happened to him.

It's a terrifying prospect

to have a completely functioning mind inside a body

that locks you in, that keeps you stationary.

[Cinema projector whirrs]

One of the things I wanted to get right

was to show the stages of the progression

of his condition,

and where the instability and fear came from.

The very obvious details such as

being at the top of a flight of stairs

that suddenly becomes the most enormous obstacle.

Being on any sort of uneven ground.

Those feelings of vulnerability.

He's incredibly stoic.

I think that was probably the case

when he was younger as well,

I think he rolled up his sleeves and got on with it.

And look at the results, I mean it's self evident -

the man became a spokesperson for the most complex ideas.

Alright, Stephen, we're going to put your hat on.

[Machine beeps]

The straps go round and hold the hat on.

Look at you!

[Laughter]

You look mean.

You got a hat.

Is it a gangster hat?

It's the don!

[Woman laughs]

ONE ADVANTAGE OF BEING A PUBLIC FIGURE

IS BEING ASKED TO DO SPECIAL THINGS.

TODAY I AM CENTER STAGE AT THE OPENING CEREMONY

OF THE PARALYMPICS GAMES.

AND, IT'S AN HONOR TO DO SO.

EVER SINCE THE DAWN OF CIVILIZATION,

PEOPLE HAVE CRAVED FOR AN UNDERSTANDING

OF THE UNDERLYING ORDER OF THE WORLD.

THERE OUGHT TO BE SOMETHING VERY SPECIAL

ABOUT THE BOUNDARY CONDITIONS OF THE UNIVERSE,

AND WHAT CAN BE MORE SPECIAL THAN THAT THERE IS NO BOUNDARY,

AND THERE SHOULD BE NO BOUNDARY TO HUMAN ENDEAVOR.

THE PARALYMPIC GAMES ARE ALL ABOUT

TRANSFORMING OUR PERCEPTION OF THE WORLD.

WE ARE ALL DIFFERENT.

THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A STANDARD

OR RUN OF THE MILL HUMAN BEING.

BUT WE SHARE THE SAME HUMAN SPIRIT.

HOWEVER DIFFICULT LIFE MAY SEEM,

THERE IS ALWAYS SOMETHING YOU CAN DO AND SUCCEED AT.

THE GAMES PROVIDE AN OPPORTUNITY FOR ATHLETES TO EXCEL,

TO STRETCH THEMSELVES AND BECOME OUTSTANDING IN THEIR FIELD.

SO LET US TOGETHER CELEBRATE EXCELLENCE,

FRIENDSHIP, AND RESPECT.

GOOD LUCK TO YOU ALL.

[Crowd cheers]

[Fireworks whizz and bang]

Whoo!

Goodness!

[Family and friends all gasp]

HAVING LIVED ON THIS WONDERFUL PLANET FOR OVER 71 YEARS,

I FEEL MY PROUDEST ACHIEVEMENT HAS BEEN

TO INSPIRE PEOPLE TO THINK ABOUT THE COSMOS AND OUR PLACE IN IT.

SINCE I BELIEVE THERE IS NO AFTERLIFE,

I THINK IT'S IMPORTANT TO REALIZE

WE ONLY HAVE A VERY SHORT TIME ALIVE,

AND SHOULD MAKE THE BEST OF IT.

TODAY, I ENJOY TIME TOGETHER WITH FAMILY AND FRIENDS.

AND DESPITE MY DISABILITIES,

I'LL ALWAYS KEEP WONDERING ABOUT THE MYSTERIES OF THE UNIVERSE.

[Mary Hawking] Stephen's been ill since he was 20.

You come to terms with the impending bereavement

and then suddenly find it's not that impending after all.

I'm sure there's plenty more he'd like to know about.

Think how awful it would be to come to the end of questions.

Stephen will carry on until they push him underground.

You don't just stop your mind.

[Bernard Carr] Stephen's always had

this determination to survive I guess.

And every time Stephen gets critically ill I always think,

"Oh dear, is he going to get through this time?"

And he always does.

He has just got this tremendous determination to live,

and I do think there is such a thing as the will to live.

[Dance music]

[Kip Thorne] There are several components to his long survival.

One is that he is, by a very large margin,

the most stubborn person I have ever met.

He is one of those very few people who can see

far beyond the borders of current knowledge,

and see how things really work,

and set the directions for other people's research

and attempts to prove him right or wrong.

[Jane Hawking] To recover from a broken marriage,

it was very, very difficult.

At first we were in touch,

But then it got very, very difficult.

But lately we have been able to associate.

I call on him perhaps once a fortnight.

All those years with Stephen were a huge part of my life.

They were my young years.

They were my children.

And I can't just wipe those from the record

and I wouldn't want to.

It would be self-destructive to wipe those away.

And I am very, very proud of what Stephen has done.

LIFE HAS THROWN AT ME, BOTH GOOD TIMES, AND BAD.

PERHAPS IT IS HUMAN NATURE, THAT WE ADAPT, AND SURVIVE.

AS FOR ME, I HAVE LIVED WITH THE PROSPECT OF AN EARLY DEATH

MOST OF MY LIFE.

I'M NOT AFRAID OF DYING,

BUT I'M IN NO HURRY TO DIE.

I HAVE SO MUCH I WANT TO DO AND FIND OUT FIRST.

[Whooping and cheering]

SO, FOR NOW...

GOODBYE.

AND THANK YOU FOR COMING ON A JOURNEY THROUGH MY WORLD.

[Cheering fades]

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