Braxton O’Dell
Mrs.Ward
Research Project
2 November 2014
Stephen Hawking and his Struggles with ALS
What exactly is ALS? It has become one of the most popular topics in the media over the last year. All what seems to come to mind when you think about ALS is people dumping buckets of ice and water over their heads but it’s something much more than that. ALS is an illness referred to as “Lou Gehrig’s Disease,” or Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. The medical definition of ALS is, “a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord. As motor neurons degenerate, they can no longer send impulses to the muscle fibers that normally result in muscle movement.” (ALS Association) In other words it means …show more content…
Hawking, who is now 73 and still going, has greatly surpassed his expectancy. Doctors say life expectancy depends on two things, “ the motor neurons running the diaphragm-the breathing muscles. So the common way people die is of respiratory failure. And the other thing is the deterioration of swallowing, and that can lead to malnutrition and dehydration.” (Scientific American) If you don’t have these two things you can potentially live for a much longer time. Doctors believe he’s lived for so long because he established the disease at such a young age. One doctor believes he has Juvenile-onset Disorder which, “progresses very, very, very slowly. I have patients in my clinic who were diagnosed in their teens and are alive still in their 40s, 50s, and 60s.” (Scientific American) Less than a few percent of these cases are very slow-progressing forms of ALS. Hawking has quite the active mind and such a beautiful positive outlook on life and what he is able to accomplish despite his conditions. No doctors are really sure why he has lived for so long but just observations like the ones above. It’s something that stands unknown. A cure for ALS has not yet been discovered but as more and more money is being thrown in, people are most certain a cure to be discovered is inevitable. Already people are busting themselves for a cure that could save thousands of lives. ALS isn’t something that’s just going to go away, …show more content…
He raises the bar in overcoming adversity to achieve greatness. His discoveries have helped shape our current cosmology programs. For those who don’t know cosmology is the science origin and development of the universe. In other words the study of the Big Bang Theory. After gaining his Ph.D. Stephen left the Institute of Astronomy in 1973 and entered the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics in 1979. Stephen worked on the basic laws which govern the universe. Some of his most famous work was, “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 the black holes. These results indicated that it was necessary to unify General Relativity with Quantum Theory, the other great Scientific development of the first half of the 20th Century. One consequence of such a unification that he discovered was that black holes should not be completely black, but rather should emit radiation and disappear. Another conjecture is that the universe has no edge or boundary in imaginary time. This would imply that the way the universe began was completely determined by the laws of science.” (Stephen Hawking) Stephen also has published many books. Some of his best sellers are: A Brief History of Time, Black Holes and Baby Universes and Other Essays, The Universe in a Nutshell, The Grand
Mrs.Ward
Research Project
2 November 2014
Stephen Hawking and his Struggles with ALS
What exactly is ALS? It has become one of the most popular topics in the media over the last year. All what seems to come to mind when you think about ALS is people dumping buckets of ice and water over their heads but it’s something much more than that. ALS is an illness referred to as “Lou Gehrig’s Disease,” or Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. The medical definition of ALS is, “a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord. As motor neurons degenerate, they can no longer send impulses to the muscle fibers that normally result in muscle movement.” (ALS Association) In other words it means …show more content…
Hawking, who is now 73 and still going, has greatly surpassed his expectancy. Doctors say life expectancy depends on two things, “ the motor neurons running the diaphragm-the breathing muscles. So the common way people die is of respiratory failure. And the other thing is the deterioration of swallowing, and that can lead to malnutrition and dehydration.” (Scientific American) If you don’t have these two things you can potentially live for a much longer time. Doctors believe he’s lived for so long because he established the disease at such a young age. One doctor believes he has Juvenile-onset Disorder which, “progresses very, very, very slowly. I have patients in my clinic who were diagnosed in their teens and are alive still in their 40s, 50s, and 60s.” (Scientific American) Less than a few percent of these cases are very slow-progressing forms of ALS. Hawking has quite the active mind and such a beautiful positive outlook on life and what he is able to accomplish despite his conditions. No doctors are really sure why he has lived for so long but just observations like the ones above. It’s something that stands unknown. A cure for ALS has not yet been discovered but as more and more money is being thrown in, people are most certain a cure to be discovered is inevitable. Already people are busting themselves for a cure that could save thousands of lives. ALS isn’t something that’s just going to go away, …show more content…
He raises the bar in overcoming adversity to achieve greatness. His discoveries have helped shape our current cosmology programs. For those who don’t know cosmology is the science origin and development of the universe. In other words the study of the Big Bang Theory. After gaining his Ph.D. Stephen left the Institute of Astronomy in 1973 and entered the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics in 1979. Stephen worked on the basic laws which govern the universe. Some of his most famous work was, “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 the black holes. These results indicated that it was necessary to unify General Relativity with Quantum Theory, the other great Scientific development of the first half of the 20th Century. One consequence of such a unification that he discovered was that black holes should not be completely black, but rather should emit radiation and disappear. Another conjecture is that the universe has no edge or boundary in imaginary time. This would imply that the way the universe began was completely determined by the laws of science.” (Stephen Hawking) Stephen also has published many books. Some of his best sellers are: A Brief History of Time, Black Holes and Baby Universes and Other Essays, The Universe in a Nutshell, The Grand