"One of my goals in writing this book was to pay my daughter's school fees, but my main goal was to show how much our knowledge of the universe has increased."
Professor Stephen Hawking had already become a superstar in the world of theoretical physics in the early 1980s, but people in the outside world gradually became familiar with him and his work.
Fortunately or otherwise, in 1983, when Stephen Hawking was considering writing the book, a publisher named Peter Gazardi published Stephen Hawking and his whale profile in the 1983 New York Times magazine chair.
Speaking to BBC's Luis Hudalgo, he said he was impressed with his work and contacted Stephen Hawking to find out if he would like to write a book that would tell an ordinary man about the beginning of the universe. Take a journey into the internal worlds of the atom. ?
And fortunately, in those days, Stephen Hawking had plans to write a similar book.
He wanted his book of him to be on sale at US and UK airports.
And the book sold well, and topped the New York Times bestseller for 147 weeks and stayed on that list for the next five years.
It is still debated how many people have read this book in its entirety and how many people have just bought it, but this is the book that introduced Stephen Hawking to the world outside of research circles.
Hawking is one of the most famous scientists of our time whose work in cosmology is of paramount importance in this field.
He was just a graduate student when he suffered from a neurological disease that gradually paralyzed him, but he didn't let it become his weak point and continued to work on him looking for him.
He wrote this book during this time.
At the time, Stephen Hawking was a Lucasian math professor at Cambridge University. This is the same position that the famous scientist Isaac Newton occupied before him.
According to Dr Simon Mitten, then director of scientific publications at Cambridge University Press, Stephen Hawking was somewhat concerned about his financial situation at the time and was unable to obtain any insurance due to the nature of his illness.
So he decided to devote some time to his research work to write a book.
Dr. Mitten says that when he saw the first draft of the book, it was full of scientific formulas and told him that any formula would reduce the book's sales.
According to him, when Stephen Hawking told him he wanted to see the book atop the stalls at US and UK airports, Dr Mitten urged him to make it even easier. Einstein's only three-letter book remained the scientific formula.
Peter Gazardi explains that shortly thereafter Stephen Hawking submitted his 100-page draft, prompting his publisher, Bantam Press, to offer him a 250,000 advance.
But the firm's lawyers stepped in and said that a person with such a serious illness is winning a contract to write a book with such a large sum of money, but we don't know if he will be able to write this book or not. .
But according to Peter Gazardi, the director of the company said we are willing to take that risk.
Then came a dramatic turn of events when Stephen Hawking died of pneumonia in 1985 and his voice was completely lost due to surgery to save him, but he completed his project with the help of a computer.
Stephen Hawking would write a draft and send it to Peter Gazardi, who would return it with instructions for making drastic changes. Stephen Hawking himself thought that this phase would never end, but when the book was published in March 1988, according to Peter Gazardi, he got what he and Stephen Hawking wanted.
The book begins with ancient Greek theories about our place on earth and in the universe, followed by Albert Einstein's Theory of General Relativity in modern physics, and then by quantum mechanics.
Einstein's theory of relativity and quantum mechanics (which many scientists have worked on) are two theories that provide a complete picture of the universe.
But these two theories are not compatible with each other and efforts are being made to harmonize them into a scientific theory. Any such early theory is called the Theory of Everything, and Stephen Hawking's comment on it in the last paragraph of the book, where he discusses it in detail in the book, has become very popular. I was very interested in this topic.
He wrote in the last paragraph of the book that if we discover such a complete theory, it will be the greatest achievement of human intellect and logic because then we will understand the mind of God.
Stephen Hawking himself later said that if this paragraph were removed, the book's sales would likely be halved.
Muhammad Hamza Waseem, PhD student and tutor in Quantum Physics at Oxford University, emphasizes the importance of the book and says that one of the main reasons for its success was the circumstances of Stephen Hawking.
Speaking to the BBC, he stated that the book, written by Stephen Hawking during his disability, was of great interest to the people themselves, as it was important for people with physical disabilities to conduct advanced research in physics. a source of surprise and hope.
And it is true that as soon as Stephen Hawking's name comes to mind, whether or not one of his inquiries comes to mind, this book and his illness surely come to mind.
But according to Hamza, Hawking himself disliked being used for any benefit by making his illness the cause of his fame.
Stephen Hawking himself wrote in an article for the Wall Street Journal arguing that those who bought the book with this view in mind would be disappointed.
Professor Hawking described the comments made on the book as his illness and disability were the first to be mentioned in each comment.
But was Professor Hawking's book the first scientific book to address these problems?
According to Dr. Pervez Hoodbhai, a renowned Pakistani physicist, the topics covered in this book have already appeared in popular science books, but Stephen Hawking's personality and style have made this book extremely popular.
Pervez Hoodbhai says that quantum mechanics is a fundamental pillar of physics and it takes many years to understand it, so according to him, this book is definitely not for someone whose first scientific book is this. He also notes that Stephen Hawking will not be remembered. for his scientific books written for the public, but above all for his work and his research in cosmology.
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