ISLAMABAD – Stephen Hawking death has stirred a new debate why he never gotNobel Prize.
Hawking redefined cosmology by proposing that black holes are mortal, theNobel Prize for Physics remained elusive as his theory cannot be observedor verified.
Even though his theory is now firmly accepted in theoretical physics, therewas no way to verify if black holes are mortal, said Timothy Ferris, authorof ‘The Science of Liberty’.
“Black holes are too long-lived to be observed today in their deaththroes,” Ferris wrote in The National Geographic.
Hawking, known for his work on black holes and relativity, died at his homelink>inthe UK at the age of 76.
He was regarded as one of the most brilliant theoretical physicists sinceAlbert Einstein.
“Hawking probably would have won the prize had nature providedobservational confirmation. But that won’t happen for billions of years,not until the first star-size black holes start exploding,” according toFerris.
The Nobel Prize cannot be awarded posthumously.
It was in 1970, Hawking had an idea that filled him with what he laterdescribed as a “moment of ecstasy.”
He thought that black holes, previously assumed to be more or lessimmortal, could instead slowly lose mass and eventually evaporate,exploding in a flash of gamma rays.
The eminent scientist’s black hole research is now firmly embedded intheoretical physics. It united relativity (a classical theory, in whicheverything is smooth as silk) with quantum mechanics (in which everythingis grainy) and spurred progress in information theory.
While Hawking may not have won the coveted Nobel Prize, he, however, hasover a dozen honorary degrees and was awarded the Commander of the MostExcellent Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1982 and the Gold Medal ofthe Royal Astronomical Society in 1985.
He was also a fellow of the Royal Society and a member of the US NationalAcademy of Science.