你所不知道的霍金

These days, we know Hawking as a brilliant mind whose

theories are difficult for a nonscientific mind to grasp[领会]. This is why it may come as a shock to learn that Hawking was a slacker[懒鬼] when it came to his school studies.

In fact, when he was nine years old, his grades ranked among the worst in his class. With a little more effort, he brought those grades up to about average, but not much better.

Despite his poor grades, both his teachers and his

peers[同辈] seemed to understand that they had a future genius among them, evidenced by the fact that his nickname was“Einstein.”

2008, Hawking was invited to speak, and he mentioned his thoughts on the possibility of alien life.

He expressed that, given the vastness[巨大] of the universe, there very well could be primitive[原始的] alien life out there, and it is possible, other intelligent life.

Hawking also did an episode on the possibility of aliens for Into the Universe with Stephen Hawking on the Discovery Channel. In this episode, he explains that aliens might use up their own planet’s resources and “become nomads[游牧部落], looking to conquer and colonize[殖民] whatever planets they could reach.”

In 2007, when Stephen Hawking was 65 years old, he got to take the ride of a lifetime. He was able to experience zero-gravity and float out of his wheelchair thanks to Zero Gravity Corp. The service involves an airplane ride in which sharp ascent[上升] and descent[下降] allows passengers to experience weightlessness in flight for several rounds, each about 25-seconds long. Hawking, free from his wheelchair for the first time in four decades, was even able to perform gymnastic[体操的] flips[翻转].

When asked about why he wanted to do this, he of course cited his desire to go into space. But his reasons for going and his overall support for space travel went deeper than that.

Due to the possibility of global warming or nuclear war, Hawking has said that the future of the human race will be in outer space. He hopes that we can travel to other planets to use their resources to survive.航空航天局五十周年纪念活动上讲话，他提到了对外星生命存在可能性的想法。

他表示，鉴于宇宙浩瀚广大，存在原始的外星生命不足为奇，其他智能生物也有可能存在。

霍金还在探索频道的《与霍金一起了解宇宙》的其中一集中讨论过外星人存在的可能性。他在这一集中解释说，外星人可能用尽了它们星球上的资源，就会“成为游牧民族，企图征服所有它们可以到达的星球，并向其进行殖民”。

2007年，65岁的斯蒂芬·霍金体验到人生中最重要的一趟飞行。多亏了零重力公司，他得以体验零重力的感觉，更飘出了自己的轮椅。在这项服务中，一架飞机在飞行中急速升降，让乘客在飞行中体验数次无重状态，每次大约持续25秒。这是霍金在四十年里第一次离开轮椅。他甚至可以翻跟斗呢。

当被问到这样做的原因时，他当然说自己想要上太空。但他的太空梦以及全力支持太空旅行的原因要深远得多。

鉴于全球暖化严重或核战争爆发的可能性，霍金认为外太空将是人类的未来所在。他希望我们可以去到其他星球，用它们的资源生存下去。

注2：英国数学物理学家与牛津大学数学系名誉教授。他在数学物理方面的工作受到高度评价，对广义相对论与宇宙学方面的贡献尤为突出。上世纪70年代，他与霍金一起证明了著名的奇性定理，为此他们共同获得了1988年的沃尔夫物理奖。

注3：英国剑桥大学的一个荣誉职位，授予对象为数理相关的研究者，同一时间只授予一人。