Stephen Hawking, the man whose brain transcended disability, was one of science’s brightest stars

Stephen Hawking was given only a few years to live when he was diagnosed with motor neuron disease in 1964, but defied the medical profession in typically stubborn fashion

Reading Time:2 minutes

Published: 6:52pm, 14 Mar 2018Updated: 11:15pm, 14 Mar 2018

In his final years, the only thing connecting the brilliant physicist to the outside world was a couple of inches of frayed nerve in his cheek.

As slowly as a word per minute, Stephen Hawking used the twitching of the muscle under his right eye to grind out his thoughts on a custom-built computer, painstakingly outlining his vision of time, the universe, and humanity’s place within it.

What he produced was a masterwork of popular science, one that guided a generation of enthusiasts through the esoteric world of anti-particles, quarks, and quantum theory.

His success in turn transformed him into a massively popular scientist, one as familiar to the wider world through his appearances on The Simpsons and Star Trek as his work on cosmology and black holes.

Hawking owed one part of his fame to his triumph over amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, a degenerative disease that eats away at the nervous system. When he was diagnosed aged only 21, he was given only a few years to live.

But Hawking defied the normally fatal illness for more than 50 years, pursuing a brilliant career that stunned doctors and thrilled his fans.