Hawking Gets Personal

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Unlike A Brief History, the new book (a collection of essays, transcribed talks and new writings) contains plenty about Hawking himself. There are the requisite discussions of quantum physics and cosmology, of course. But those millions who bought yet couldn't penetrate A Brief History may be relieved to hear that there are also chapters on Hawking's early life, his marriage to fellow student Jane Wilde and his experiences as an ALS victim.

Readers will learn, for example, that his father was a doctor who did research on tropical diseases, and his mother a secretary. The family was considered somewhat eccentric -- they drove around in an old London taxi because they couldn't afford a new car. Hawking didn't concentrate much on his studies in college, and gave up completely for a while when his ALS was diagnosed. But his marriage, and the need to support a family, got him to start working hard for the first time in his life. "To my surprise," he writes, "I found I liked it," and his career took off.

< The new book also addresses, at least in passing, a controversy stirred by A Brief History. Many readers interpreted portions of that book as an attempt to disprove the existence of God. Not so, says Hawking. "You don't need to appeal to God to set the initial conditions for the universe, but that doesn't prove there is no God -- only that he acts through the laws of physics." Other controversies are ignored. Three years ago, Hawking left his wife after more than two decades and moved in with Elaine Mason, one of his nurses. "I would rather not go into details of my private life," is all he will say.

The kids in the lecture hall have other things on their mind besides black holes and broken marriages. As Hawking finishes, they crowd around him, forming a semicircle of wheelchairs, and begin pelting him with questions on topics closer to home: "How do you make a legal signature if you can't write?" "How do you feel about the Americans with Disabilities Act?" "What are Klingons really like?" As they wait for Hawking to tap out his answers, they can't stop grinning. Here's a famous scientist, a best-selling author, a Star Trek star -- and he's disabled, just like them.