Farmelo Puts Hawking’s Genius Beside His Dark Side — SkimNews
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- Graham Farmelo’s Hawking family-authorised biography uses the physicist’s family and colleagues’ accounts to confront his ambition, self-promotion, failure to credit others, sexism and controlling behaviour.
- Stephen Hawking was diagnosed with motor neurone disease in early 1963 and given less than 10 years to live, but the 1970 paper with Roger Penrose turned gravitational-collapse ideas into his first major triumph.
- Stephen Hawking proposed in 1974 that quantum-mechanical spacetime makes black holes emit a dim particle glow, combining gravity, quantum mechanics, thermodynamics and information theory in what Farmelo calls the high point of his research career.
- Jacob Bekenstein devised the link between a black hole’s area and entropy, but Hawking derided the idea before accepting it, leaving some of Hawking’s friends disappointed that he had essentially claimed it for himself.
- Jane endured Hawking’s ridicule of her religious beliefs alongside his “authoritarian” demands and indifference to her interests as their relationship moved from romance to caregiving.
- Peter Higgs said Hawking’s pronouncements about particle physics were “total crap” because he spoke without understanding while knowing reporters would carry his comments into headlines.
Why it matters: By treating Hawking as an ordinary scientist rather than excusing his conduct because of disability, Farmelo shows how indulgence kept his unacceptable behaviour from the scrutiny faced by other scientists and left colleagues and family outside the celebratory legacy.
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