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The man himself can tell you. Here is a direct quote from Stephen Hawking's website:

"In 1980, we changed to a system of community and private nurses, who came in for an hour or two in the morning and evening. This lasted until I caught pneumonia in 1985. I had to have a tracheotomy operation. After this, I had to have 24 hour nursing care. This was made possible by grants from several foundations.

"Before the operation, my speech had been getting more slurred, so that only a few people who knew me well, could understand me. But at least I could communicate. I wrote scientific papers by dictating to a secretary, and I gave seminars through an interpreter, who repeated my words more clearly. However, the tracheotomy operation removed my ability to speak altogether. For a time, the only way I could communicate was to spell out words letter by letter, by raising my eyebrows when someone pointed to the right letter on a spelling card. It is pretty difficult to carry on a conversation like that, let alone write a scientific paper. However, a computer expert in California, called Walt Woltosz, heard of my plight. He sent me a computer program he had written, called Equalizer. This allowed me to select words from a series of menus on the screen, by pressing a switch in my hand. The program could also be controlled by a switch, operated by head or eye movement. When I have built up what I want to say, I can send it to a speech synthesizer. At first, I just ran the Equalizer program on a desk top computer.

"However David Mason, of Cambridge Adaptive Communication, fitted a small portable computer and a speech synthesizer to my wheel chair. This system allowed me to communicate much better than I could before. I can manage up to 15 words a minute. I can either speak what I have written, or save it to disk. I can then print it out, or call it back and speak it sentence by sentence. Using this system, I have written a book, and dozens of scientific papers. I have also given many scientific and popular talks. They have all been well received. I think that is in a large part due to the quality of the speech synthesiser, which is made by Speech Plus. One's voice is very important. If you have a slurred voice, people are likely to treat you as mentally deficient: Does he take sugar? This synthesiser is by far the best I have heard, because it varies the intonation, and doesn't speak like a Dalek. The only trouble is that it gives me an American accent."

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Although Professor Hawking discounts the value of numerical IQ's, he admitted that his own is likely very high (it has been suggested as 160 or more). He also said that "People who boast about their IQ's are losers". (see link to 2004 interview)

---a possibly dramatized anecdote from Introducing Stephen Hawking (2006)---

Near the end of his term at Oxford and no doubt beginning to feel the effects of ALS, Hawking took a terrible fall down a staircase in the university hall. As a result, he temporarily lost his memory. He could not even remember his name. After several hours of interrogation by his friends, he finally returned to normal but was worried about possible permanent brain damage. To be sure, he decided to take the Mensa test for individuals with superior intelligence. He was delighted to find that he passed with flying colours, scoring between 200 and 250!

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Asinine, so many ways. Does Hawking not have a nose because he has a chin? And this: Roger Penrose had to prove to him that black holes must exist; did so with a diagram which took him 15 seconds to draw, Point and match to Penrose. And they are probably both AS.

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That can never actually be told because supposedly, Einstein never took an IQ test in the first place. Most of Stephen Hawking's theories may be based on Einstein's, but remember even supercomputers are based on ENIACs.

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Physics existed long before Stephen Hawking.

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No, he has been living with actress, Naomi Wirthner, for many years. She is the mother of his two sons.

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As there is no empirical evidence for the existence of any sort of deity, and as there is absolutely no need to invoke god(s) to explain the universe, Hawking does not believe in any deity.

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works in a goat ranch and milks camels for camel cheese XD lol :P

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He was a follower of Jesus. He was later stoned by Jews, while Saul (later called Paul) was holding their clothes. He is considered to be the first Christian martyr. Right before he dies though, he sees Jesus sitting in heaven, and they say Stephen's was as britght as an angels.

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Stephen Hawking is alive at time of writing (January 2012)

Hawking has a motor neuron disease (MND) that deteriorates his upper and lower motor neurons. Typical forms of MND include ALS (aka Lou Gherig's disease), progressive lateral sclerosis (PLS), bulbar palsy's (which are diseases that specifically affect the corticobulbar tracts), and progressive muscular atrophy.

It has been speculated that Hawking has ALS, but this would be an extraordinarily rare case of ALS, due to the fact that most people diagnosed with ALS live ~ 14 months from diagnosis to death. Some people live anywhere between 2-5 years with the disease. Hawking has been dealing with his condition for over 40 years, so the pathophysiology involved in his disease is markedly different from typical case presentations, which are very insidious and rapidly progressive. Saying Hawking has a variant of ALS would be more accurate

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Stephen had 3 kids Robert, Lucy, and Timothy

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Oxford University.

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Black

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hes an alien XD

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Stephen Hawking is famous for his research on black holes. He is one of the most famous cosmologists and theoretical physicists alive. He is known, amongst other things, for the description of radiation that escapes from the region near a black hole (Hawking radiation) and the theory of the evaporation of black holes.

Together with Roger Penrose, he showed that Einstein's General Theory of Relativity implied space and time would have a beginning in the Big Bang and an end in black holes.

Hawkings' scientific works (together with others) include providing theorems regarding singularities, the framework of general relativity.

He is also famous because he has accomplished so much, despite his debilitating muscular atrophy due to ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis).

from his work in black holes and working through his disablities.

Yes he was. Stephen Hawking was born on January 8th 1942 and is known for his contribution to cosmology and quantum gravity.

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He is a world renowned scientist, but unfortunantely he is wheel chair bound and unable to speak.

he is on a wheel chair and can't speak because of the disease ALS of most commonly know as Lou Gehrig's disease. It is a disease that slowly kills all nerves in the body and eventually kills you. he is the longest known survivor of this disease. And It is very rar for someone as young as he was(21) gets diagnosed with it.

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No he is a Jew.

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you might be thinking about Stephen hawkings.

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physics and quantum physics at cambridge university

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Black holes have a long history; John Michel figured out some 200 years ago that something like "black holes" should exist, if it were possible to concentrate matter into a tiny space. The modern theory of black holes is somewhat different from Michel's arguments, though. Specifically, the modern theory of black holes is based on the General Theory of Relativity.

The actual discovery was more recent, and it took a while to recognize the X-rays observed, as black holes.

I suggst you read about "black holes" in Wikipedia, for example, to get a more thorough description of the theory - and also of the history.

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It is S.W.Hawking@damtp.cam.ac.uk. But just remember that a lot of people are e-mailing him too, so it might take him a long time to get back if he will get back at all.

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When he was 21 he was diagnosed with ALS or Lou Gehrig's Disease. It is a muscular dystrophy meaning that his muscles slowly weaken and waste away and will eventually kill him.