How Stephen Hawking Transformed Humanity’s View of the Universe

By Brandon Specktor

Renowned physicist Stephen Hawking died peacefully today (March 14) at age 76 at his home in Cambridge,England.

[2] Hawking will be remembered by many as a cultural force—the brilliant thinker who wrote “A Brief History of Time” and played himself on “Star Trek:The Next Generation,” “The Simpsons”and “The Big Bang Theory.” He published more than 10 popular books (including a series of children’s books, cowritten with his daughter, Lucy) and was the subject of more than 15 documentary films and biopics. He did it all while living with the incurable degenerative disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS),which put him in a wheelchair for much of his life.

著名物理學家斯蒂芬·霍金3月14日在英國劍橋的家中安靜辭世，享年76歲。

[2]許多人懷念霍金，是因為他代表著一種文化力量。這位杰出的思想家撰寫了《時間簡史》，在《星際迷航：下一代》《辛普森一家》和《生活大爆炸》中本色出演，出版了十余本熱門書籍（包括和女兒露西共同撰寫的一套童書），還是超過15部紀錄片和傳記片的主角。而與此同時，他患有一種無法治愈的退行性疾病——肌萎縮性脊髓側索硬化癥，生命中絕大多數(shù)時光都在輪椅上度過。

[3]除了勵志人生和對流行文化的酷愛，霍金還將作為20世紀下半葉最重要的物理學家為人所銘記。霍金對黑洞、量子力學和宇宙起源的研究探索進一步發(fā)展了阿爾伯特·愛因斯坦、沃納·海森堡等前輩思想家的理論，為宇宙活動提供了迄今最全面的解釋。

[3] But beyond his inspirational biography and pop-culture bona fides1bona fides真誠，誠意。,Hawking will also be remembered as perhaps the most important physicist of the second half of the 20th century.Hawking’s work on black holes, quantum mechanics and the origins of the universe advanced the theories of previous thinkers like Albert Einstein and Werner Heisenberg2德國物理學家，量子力學創(chuàng)始人之一，1932年諾貝爾物理學獎得主。他提出了著名的“測不準原理”。, providing the most comprehensive explanation for the behavior of the cosmos to date.

[4] “My goal is simple,” Hawking was quoted as saying in a 1989 biography. “It is a complete understanding of the universe, why it is as it is and why it exists at all.”

Here, we recall some of Hawking’s biggest theories about life, the universe and everything.

Before the Big Bang

[5] Hawking began sharing his vision of the universe in 1966 while studying physics at the University of Cambridge,when he turned in a doctoral thesis on the origin of the universe.

[6] At the time, scientists understood the universe to be expanding, though they did not know why. Hawking proposed the first description of what we now know as the Big Bang: somewhere,at the earliest edges of time, the universe began as a single point of infinitely small, massively dense space-time—a “singularity,” as Hawking described it. From this single point, our entire expanding universe burst forth, bringing with it all the laws of time and physics we understand today, Hawking said.

[4]“我的目標很簡單，”1989年出版的一本傳記引用霍金的話說，“就是要全面了解宇宙，了解為什么它會是現(xiàn)在這個樣子，以及它究竟為什么會存在。”

在這里，讓我們回顧一下霍金關于生命、關于宇宙、關于萬事萬物最重要的幾個理論。

大爆炸之前

[5] 1966年，正在劍橋大學學習物理的霍金提交了有關宇宙起源的博士論文，那是他第一次分享自己對宇宙的認識。

[6]當時，科學家已經(jīng)知道宇宙處在膨脹之中，可他們并不知道原因。霍金首次描述了我們今天所說的“大爆炸”：在時間的起點上，宇宙誕生了，起初只是時空中體積無窮小、密度極其高的一點——霍金稱之為“奇點”。霍金說，不斷膨脹的整個宇宙正是從這一點開始噴薄而出，由此有了我們今天所知道的種種時間定律和物理定律。

[7] “There is a singularity in our past, which constitutes, in some sense,a beginning to the universe,” Hawking eventually wrote in the preface of his first book, “The Large Scale Structure of Space-Time” (1973).

[8] Over the years following his graduation from the University of Cambridge,Hawking attempted to describe that universal starting point mathematically.By applying a complex model inspired by Einstein’s theory of general relativity, Hawking and his colleague Roger Penrose created the first of several singularity theorems, which described the cosmological conditions required for a singularity in space-time to exist.

Escaping a black hole

[9] Hawking had a fascination with the places where physics seemingly broke down. This included, famously,his study of black holes—stars that have collapsed into themselves, creating a vortex so gravitationally intense that not even light can escape them.

[10] While working at the Institute of Astronomy at the University of Cambridge, Hawking began studying black holes through the lens of thermodynamics. In 1973, he published (along with several colleagues) a paper detailing the four laws of black hole mechanics, describing the warped physics of the mysterious celestial bodies through a series of complex equations.

[7]“在我們的過去，有一個奇點，從某種意義上說，是它構成了宇宙的開端。”霍金最終將這句話寫進了他的第一本著作《時空的大尺度結構》（1973）的前言中。

[8]從劍橋大學畢業(yè)后的幾年中，霍金嘗試從數(shù)學角度描述宇宙的起點。借助源自愛因斯坦廣義相對論的一個復雜模型，霍金和同事羅杰·彭羅斯創(chuàng)立了最早的奇性定理，以描述時空中奇點存在所需的宇宙環(huán)境。

逃離黑洞

[9]霍金對那些物理學似乎失靈的地方有著異乎尋常的興趣。他著名的黑洞研究即屬此類。黑洞是由恒星向內塌縮形成的旋渦，其內引力極大，即使光也無法從中逃脫。

[10]在劍橋大學天文研究所工作期間，霍金開始從熱力學角度研究黑洞。1973年，他和幾個同事合作發(fā)表了一篇論文，詳細闡述黑洞力學四定律，用一連串復雜的方程描述這種神秘天體扭曲狀況下的物理現(xiàn)象。

[11] Hawking continued studying black holes and, soon after, had the eureka moment3eureka moment指靈光一現(xiàn)的時刻。“尤里卡”在希臘語中意為“我發(fā)現(xiàn)了”。for which he is best known.

[12] At the time, it was thought that nothing could escape the strong gravitational pull of black holes. In 1974,Hawking showed that, under certain conditions, black holes actually could create and emit subatomic particles,eventually dissolving and finally exploding in an intense burst of energy. In other words: Black holes were not completely black after all.

[13] This stream of energy radiated by black holes was later named Hawking radiation, after he described it in a 1974 paper titled “Black Hole Explosions?”

A theory of everything

[14] The discovery of Hawking radiation changed the way researchers understand the universe. By attempting to knit together the laws of gravity,thermodynamics, quantum mechanics and relativity, the study of black hole radiation also pointed to the existence of a so-called “theory of everything”—a single, unified theory of physics that described the behavior of the universe.

[11]霍金繼續(xù)研究黑洞，很快迎來讓他大為出名的頓悟時刻。

[12]當時，人們認為沒有任何東西可以逃脫黑洞的強大引力。1974年，霍金證明，在某些情況下，黑洞其實會產(chǎn)生并噴射亞原子粒子，最終走向消亡，在劇烈的能量爆發(fā)中爆炸。換句話說，黑洞其實并非全黑。

[13]在1974年發(fā)表的題為《黑洞爆炸？》的論文里，霍金描述了黑洞輻射能量的現(xiàn)象。這種現(xiàn)象后來被稱為霍金輻射。

萬物理論

[14]霍金輻射的發(fā)現(xiàn)改變了研究者對宇宙的認知。黑洞輻射研究嘗試將萬有引力定律、熱力學定律、量子力學定律和相對論結合起來，表明存在所謂的“萬物理論”，一種單一、統(tǒng)一、能夠描述宇宙活動的物理學理論。

[15]“黑洞輻射帶來一些重要的謎團，我們還在非常努力地試圖去弄明白答案。”理論物理學家肖恩·卡羅爾告訴《新科學家》，他在加州理工學院工作，“可以說，要想實現(xiàn)量子力學和引力的最終統(tǒng)一，霍金輻射是我們所掌握的最重要的線索，也是當今理論物理學的最大挑戰(zhàn)。”

[15] “Black hole radiation raises serious puzzles we are still working very hard to understand,” Sean Carroll, a theoretical physicist at the California Institute of Technology, told New Scientist. “It’s fair to say that Hawking radiation is the single biggest clue we have to the ultimate reconciliation of quantum mechanics and gravity, arguably the greatest challenge facing theoretical physics today.”

[16] Hawking continued publishing papers for the following four and a half decades, but became most famous in his later career as a science communicator.He has drawn attention lately for his concerns about humanity’s future in regards to artificial intelligence, his vocal opposition of wars and his insistence that leaders like U.S. President Donald Trump take the threats of climate change more seriously.

[17] Still, Hawking’s most lasting quotes may be about the importance of communication itself.

“Mankind’s greatest achievements have come about by talking, and its greatest failures by not talking,” Hawking said. “It doesn’t have to be like this.Our greatest hopes could become reality in the future. Withthe technology at our disposal, the possibilities are unbounded. All we need to do is make sure we keep talking.”4這段話本是歌詞，出自霍金與英國搖滾樂隊平克·弗洛伊德（Pink Floyd）合作創(chuàng)作的歌曲“Talkin’ Hawkin’”（《喋喋不休的霍金》）。

[16]之后45年，霍金仍不斷發(fā)表論文，但在事業(yè)的后半段，最讓霍金出名的是他作為科學傳播者的工作。近來，他對人工智能興起之后人類的未來憂心忡忡，他發(fā)聲反對戰(zhàn)爭，他堅持要求包括美國總統(tǒng)唐納德·特朗普在內的領導人以更嚴肅的態(tài)度應對氣候變化帶來的威脅，這些舉動引人注目。

[17] 然而，霍金最不朽的名言也許是闡述“交流”本身重要性的一段話。

霍金說：“人類最偉大的成就在交談中逐漸成形，而最大的失敗則源自交談的缺失。事情不必非得如此。我們最宏大的愿景在未來也可能變?yōu)楝F(xiàn)實。憑借我們所掌握的技術，未來將有無限可能。唯一需要做的，就是確保我們保持交談。”