he is one of those very few people who
can see far beyond the borders of
current knowledge and see how things
really work he's just got this
tremendous determination to to live and
I do think there is such a thing as the
will to live
he will carry on until they push him
underground
[Music]
my name is Stephen Hawking
for the past 50 years I had traveled the
world studying and lecturing about time
and space
this film is a personal journey through
my life told in my own words
[Music]
come with me and I will tell you the
story of how I became Who I am
[Music]
talking is made possible in part by
contributions to your PBS station from
viewers like you
thank you
[Music]
so you wouldn't take her lunch in the
cafeteria yes I think it would kill him
if he was in a home being cared for by
nurses he likes to flare cheese that
what he wants to do of his life he loves
the danger of flying he loves to go to
space and he's been in submarines he's
just the most craziest man he's got love
got sitting him
just through here ISM the nurses room so
if anything medical happens or describe
a phone phone 999 but there is not much
we can actually do because Stephen is on
a nippy but she or Yvonne is that foul
the only other thing we could do and we
do have and we have oxygen cylinders and
we can give him oxygen but if he's in
toe 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
[Music]
because every new day caught me my last
I have developed a desire to make the
most of each and every minute although I
am 71 now I still go to work every day
at Cambridge University connected mind
has been vital to my survival as has
been maintaining a sense of humor when I
went to my job in Turkey I thought he
was going to ask me about my past
medical history and what I've done
before in care he didn't he asked
whether I could cook poached eggs I was
19 at the time and I lied because I
didn't know how to cook poached eggs
ginger as you can see the gradual
advance of my illness has meant that I
am totally reliant on those around me
[Music]
71 years ago life started that way too
[Music]
I was born in 1942 exactly 300 years
after the death of Galileo that is often
said that a person early years are a
good indication of how they will turn
out
perhaps my oldest sister Mary remember
me best
I remember Steven was very bright always
into things
I remember my father made me a doll's
house so Steven putting both plumbing
and lighting I spend 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
[Music]
Hoan life was always stimulating for me
and my siblings we used to argue
theology or not 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 that was the place where my mind
was constantly challenged
I remember being quite gobsmacked by the
conversation over lunch it was about
subjects which were never talked about
in my house sex on the sexuality
arguments for and against abortion and
various other subjects that were quite
unusual 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
it's always assumed Stephen would go to
Oxford father thought the good thing is
Stephen did medicine but Stephen was not
intimate and he's been with all four
doctors together so they compromised we
agreed on a degree in Natural Sciences
specializing in physics the prevailing
attitude at Oxford at the time was very
Andy work you were supposed to be
brilliant without effort or to accept
your limitations and get a fourth class
degree the work are to get a better
class of degree was regarded as the mark
of a dream and the work tap that in the
Oxford vocabulary I think Stephen I felt
both of us right into that category that
there was no need to work or peer to
work and 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
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 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 standout
person of intellect the question always
was whether he would use that intellect
to go anywhere well number of receptions
one goes to the semester of success then
it would seem that I have made it
tonight I am guest of honor at the
launch of a supercomputer called cosmos
in Cambridge Stephens perhaps world's
most famous scientist and you know one
can't deny that it's fantastic to have
his support
[Music]
the notion of fame the Sakura 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
[Music]
as my student days were in full swing
I was gradually becoming aware that all
was not well
[Music]
during my final year at Oxford 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 the steam fell down the
stairs
he fell down set all the way to the
bottom keep lost consciousness and then
he couldn't remember who he was
but I recovered and soon had more
pressing things on my mind despite my
relaxed attitude to study I graduated
with first-class honours and left Oxford
for Cambridge University to begin my PhD
[Music]
yet little did I know I would soon be
diagnosed with a crippling illness that
will change my life forever
[Music]
well Stephens speed of communication has
very gradually slowed down a few years
ago he was still able to use these hands
which enable to communicate by clicking
this switch on this wheelchair when he
wasn't able to do that anymore we
switched over to a switch that he'd
mounted on 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 and the facial
expressions and this will help us to
improve the rate of yours each input I
have had to learn to live with my slow
rate of communication I can only write
by flinching my cheap muscle to move the
cursor on my computer one day I feared
this muscle will fail your current piece
of software is a little dated well it's
a lot dated but you're very used to
using it so we've changed the method by
which your next word prediction works
and it can pretty much pick up the
correct word every single time even if
your letters away from the previous
version I really like it
in 1960 to age 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 true theories
battle to correctly describe the
universe the steady state Theory held
that the universe had always existed and
will 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 in nor edit
though I was determined not to worry my
family so I try 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 I think the family doctor first
and then that doctor recommended a
specialist in London
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
eventually I was diagnosed with
amyotrophic lateral sclerosis otherwise
known as motor neuron disease or ALS the
prognosis was not good I was given two
to three years to live
it was always hard to tell how Stephen
took it because he wouldn't talk about
it and if you can't do anything about it
you probably don't want to talk about
his jaw or have people talk about it he
did seem pretty to first and I don't he
accepted it emotionally
not knowing what was going to happen to
me or how rapidly the disease would
progress I was at a loose end the doctor
told me to go back to Cambridge and
carry on with my research but I was not
making much progress in any way I might
not live long enough to finish my PhD I
felt somewhat of a tragic character I
took to listening to Varner I identified
with it and still do today
[Music]
[Music]
at first the disease seemed to progress
early rapidly
[Music]
as time went by however that began to
slow down
[Music]
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
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 challenge the future she
was beautiful and gentle and seemingly
undaunted by the harsh reality of my
illness
[Music]
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 I 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 60s that the universe had a
beginning or not many scientists were
negatively opposed the idea of a big
bang because it implies the moment of
creation the hand of God
I wondered if the Big Bang could have
happened on its own without the need for
a gotta get it going the key was in the
theory of black holes at the time
physicist Roger Penrose who 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 it in time itself would
come to a stop he called it a
singularity the heart of a black hole
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 to hear time stops
you've reached the true beginning of
everything there is no previous time in
which the universe could have had a
cause that spontaneously created itself
in the Big Bang
the work that Stephen dead basically
showed there was 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
[Music]
I had controversially showed the laws of
nature suggest there is no need for a
creator or God the universe just came
into existence all by itself
[Music]
I applied for a research fellowship at
Blondo auntie's college which proved
successful the money from the fellowship
meant that Jane and I could get married
which we did in July 1965 Steven was
walking with a stick and he was losing
strength in his arms and 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 Stevens life with whom I was sharing
the marriage was physics
after returning from our honeymoon 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 and
cosmology Stevens profile certainly did
rocket it's important to know that there
was a big bang because that governs our
cosmology and the fact that it was a
singular state is very much part of that
understanding
my early work went some way to answering
how our universe began but there is
still plenty more to find out at
Cambridge I remember a new generation of
cosmologists who are tackling ever
tougher questions it's this work that I
enjoyed the most in the autumn of 1970 I
had been concentrating my research on
black holes by now training I had two
children Robert eight three years and
Lucy who had just been born
[Music]
but at this time my body was going into
a rapid decline
at home I was reluctant to ask for help
from outsider 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 bought a Cambridge I needed my
students to help me - yes I first met
Stephen in 1972 at Cambridge when I
became his PhD student he was in a
wheelchair and so I also had a role in
in in helping him with eating and moving
around and having coffee and tea and
things like that so it was a rather
unusual relationship
[Music]
although I was becoming increasingly
trapped inside my dysfunctioning body
fortunately my mind was unaffected 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
affected and disappeared to my great
surprise I found that some particles
could escape the black hole would seem
to make a mockery of the known laws of
physics at first I thought this must be
a mistake 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 rodents tinker
with his head in his hand often
accompanied by Wagner blaring out from
the loudspeakers
[Music]
he used to drive me spare
[Music]
finally after months of exhausted work I
found what I was looking for contrary to
all previously healthy recent black
holes
I discovered a team a team at particles
like a hot body losing heat this
evaporation meant in theory a black hole
had eventually disappeared I announced
my findings on st. Valentine's Day the
1974 at a cosmology conference in Oxford
to a packed audience 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 oh 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 a 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 seem to be
brought together and this was the first
time we'd seen that kind of unification
oh I was enormous ly proud enormously
proud of what Stephen for the team in
the spring of 1974 I was inducted into
the Royal Society
one of the most prestigious parties of
scientists my name now had alongside
Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin exciting
new opportunities beckoned
[Music]
door started low before me I was invited
on a visiting professorships at the
California 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
[Music]
I was simply hoping to have a year in
which the result would be better science
done by Caltech scientists by 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 in a
big house just a stone's throw from the
University yet although we had all the
mod cons that America could offer us
looking after two young children and
trying to cope with my ever-increasing
disabilities were causing too much
strain contained 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 to why
didn't we offer them a bed in our house
in return for some help with Stephen for
me that was a good deal because I live
rent-free in exchange for sort of
helping Stephen out around the home you
know bath times and things like that but
the excitement of a new life in
California was harshly interrupted by my
motor neuron disease that was a year in
which 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 on the
other hand as he gradually lost the use
of his hands he further developed his
unique ways of thinking
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 had 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 had passed
away deep in conversation I have often
been transported afar
lost inside my own thoughts trying to
fathom how the universe works
[Music]
when we return from California in the
summer of 1975 much of the future living
with my illness seemed uncertain
although my increasing disabilities were
greatly affecting my life more and more
I was clearly reluctant to accept
nursing care
I was convinced that 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 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 but one night Stephen the
most horrendous choking thing and I just
didn't know what to do and everything
just shook windows rattled doors shook
it was the most terrifying experience
and it was really critical I was never
really able to understand the strain it
was placing on the people around me
especially Paige I was beginning to feel
that there were two phases to our
situation one was the public image the
wunderkind of physics who had overcome
motor neurone disease who was whizzing
around the world in his wheelchair to
receive honors and medals and the other
side the other face was a home situation
where sometimes the illness forced us
into our own little black hole
despite the pressures on my family I was
determined to realize a lifelong
ambition by writing a top law 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 I did not think 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 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 and 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 kind of life-sized broken doll
into his arms and brings it back to the
wheelchair it kind of gently eases the
doll into place and suddenly the doll
becomes animated as soon as that hand is
on the controls the thing literally it
kicks into life spins around to three
times and takes off and then Brian
shouts to me I've gotten out of my
you
and I can't just wipe those from the
record and I wouldn't want to and I'm
very very proud of what Stephen is done
in 1995 I announced my engagement to
Elaine Nathan and married again the lead
happened one of my nurses from the start
of my 24-hour wraparound care over the
years we had become extremely close as
Jane and I drifted apart each seeking
comfort and love through new
relationships
my marriage to Elaine was passionate and
impetuous she saved my life on several
occasions but unfortunately being in the
public eye can have its drawbacks and
journalists began prying into our
private life the low point was when the
press trended on substantiated
allegations that I had been the victim
of domestic violence to my mind this was
a gross invasion of our privacy and was
an extremely hurtful and damaging time
for us both we were together for 11
years before divorcing in 2006 living a
very public life does however have the
sub-sites to 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 my
voices listen to because I did something
43 years ago but I believe that he is
valued more because he has the 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 my god closer by experiencing a
zero gravity flight
[Music]
I am convinced that one day space travel
will become an everyday necessity for
human civilization at 71 I remain
hopeful that I will be one of the first
ordinary people to blast off into space
but I will need a little help you know
we haven't offered anybody a free ticket
but it was the one person in the world
that we felt you know we would love to
invite you to space
and it was incredible when he accepted
he told me to hurry up and get the
spaceship built because he wasn't gonna
live forever and hopefully next year
we'll take him up becoming a so-called
famous person has brought me unusual
privilege and opportunities the world's
smartest man if you are looking for
trouble
you found it yeah just trying to use it
has been a lot of fun and also very
strange to see myself depicted in
different ways
but perhaps the strangest
dista have had part of my early life
portrayed by an actor I felt a huge
ownership responsibility to get that
part of his life right there was so much
that happened to him is a terrifying
prospect to have a completely
functioning mind inside a body that
looks you meant that keeps you
stationary one of the things I wanted to
get right was to show the stages of the
progression of his condition 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 whenever I do a talk show
most people see Dumb and Dumber and they
assume that that's who I am so I thought
well wouldn't it be wonderful to like
partner up with the smartest man on the
earth
it's amazing expecting him to be so
serious about himself and I think it was
a relief for him to to completely make
fun of the whole thing
[Music]
you're a genius you are after we did the
routine we kind of struck up a
friendship so I was invited to his home
and while we're having dinner I asked
him you know just for a picture could
you could you run over my foot with your
wheelchair and that I have a picture of
me grimacing in agony and stuff so it
was wonderful wonderful to be there
wonderful to talk to him nowadays my
time has taken up with my public life
[Music]
because they had I would have not a
Nobel Prize
[Applause]
life has thrown at me both good times
and bad perhaps it is human nature that
we adapt and survive as for me I am Not
Afraid of dying but I have so much I
wanted to and find out first of being a
public figure there's being asked two
special things
[Music]
today I am center stage at the opening
ceremony of the Paralympics games
I am honored to have been asked
[Music]
ever since the dawn of civilization
people have craved for an understanding
of the underlying order of the world
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
so let us together celebrate excellence
friendship and respect
good luck to you all
[Applause]
parking is made possible in part by
contributions to your PBS station from
viewers like you
thank you
[Music]
to learn more about Stephen Hawking
please visit pbs.org for slash hockey
parking is available on DVD to order
visit shoppbs.org or call 1-800 play PBS
[Music]
[Music]
you
