On Trying To Understand The Universe and Life :: Biology Essays Research Papers

On Trying To Understand The Universe and LifeI sat there in awe. I was in awe at the mans genius. I was in awe of his life. It could be described by no less than miraculous. I was especially shocked at the charge the narrator of the movie, A Brief History of Time, related the discovery of his indisposition. He explained, The doctors told him that he had about two and a half years to live and tho his heart, his lungs, and his brain would eventually remain functional while everything else in his body would turn into a cabbage(1) The words echoed through my mind, Only his heart, his lungs, and his brain.... It seemed a terrorise condition to befall a youth in his early twenties. But amazingly, as the story went on, I soon found out that for him, the beginning of his illness marked a turning point from which his life truly begun. And I was at awe at God. Simply at awe. His name is Stephen Hawking. He is considered to be one of the greatest minds of Science. He was diagnosed with Amyo trophic Lateral Sclerosis, ALS, in 1962. He is still alive. He describes his philosophy in life prior to his diagnose in these terms, My military position was that nothing was worth an effort(2) In the movie about his book, A Brief History of Time, it is explained how this philosophy was evident in his scholastic work where, in spite of his genius, he merely maintained an average standing as a student. Besides his diagnosed condition, the movie also points to another factor which reshaped his philosophy and observation post on life. He found love in the heart of a woman, Jane Wilde, who testified, Without my faith in God, I wouldnt have been able to live in this situation(her husbands condition) I would not have been able to marry Stephen in the first place because I wouldnt have had the optimism to state me through and I wouldnt have been able to carry on with it(3) With these two events, things for stephen began to matter and he began to find meaning in putting forth the effort . His accomplishments, exemplified in a Brief History of Time, certainly evidence to that. As the story unravels, he not only lived past two and a half years, he lived. He wrote, he studied, he taught, he questioned as his condition progressed and still he lives.