A Child’s Wonder
Posted on May 23, 2021
When I first read Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time I was 12 years old. And it was during those formative years, that his infectious passion for discovery sparked within me a love of science and the secrets of the universe.
“The most recognisable scientist of our age, Hawking holds an iconic status. His genre-defining book, A Brief History of Time, has sold more than 10 million copies since its publication in 1988, and has been translated into more than 35 languages. He appeared on Star Trek: the Next Generation, The Simpsons and the Big Bang Theory. His early life was the subject of an Oscar-winning performance by Eddie Redmayne in the 2014 film The Theory of Everything. He was routinely consulted for oracular pronouncements on everything from time travel and alien life to Middle Eastern politics and nefarious robots.” – Stuart Clark for NewScientist
Stephen Hawking advanced our understanding of space and time and helped shape the field of fundamental physics for the last four decades. There is not a chapter in the Percivious trilogy that has not been influenced by his insights or findings. However, his instruction does not begin and end with theoretical physics, general relativity and cosmology. I could not agree more with his statement: “It would not be much of a universe if it wasn’t home to the people you love.”.
For me, reading A Brief History of Time at an impressionable age was powerful. It was a great loss, his death in 2018. I would have loved to witness his celebration as recent visual evidence of black holes, and the discovery of a supermassive compact object at the centre of our galaxy, which further confirmed his research from decades before, was revealed. I think this quotation best captures the impact Stephen Hawking had, and continues to have on my understanding of life and the universe we are all part of.
“This book (A Brief History of Time) marries a child’s wonder to a genius’s intellect. We journey into Hawking’s universe while marvelling at his mind.” – The Sunday Times (London)
1 thought on “A Child’s Wonder”
Sarah Scott
–Amazing job Anthony! One of your more insightful instalments to date.