HAWKING : paralyzed body , but…bright brain !

Paralyzed by a progressive incurable disease , is confined to a wheelchair , unable to speak and can communicate only through a computer synthesizer. But the world eagerly awaits the words of theoretical physicist Stephen HAWKING .

Widely regarded as the heir of Isaac NEWTON and Albert EINSTEIN , the brilliant 46-year-old mathematics professor at Cambridge University is taking measure of the cosmos in search of the magnificently named Grand Unification . Specifically, HAWKING is one of a number of scientists searching for the magnificently named Grand Unification , a theory linking the two greatest intellectual achievements of the 20th century, relativity and quantum mechanics .

The former deals with the large-scale structure of the universe , as determined essentially by gravity ; the latter is concerned with the forces that operate at the atomic scale and below . Reconciling these two theories , a goal that eluded even EINSTEIN, might hold the key to understanding how the universe came into being . Unable to speak, paralyzed by a progressive incurable disease , the 46-year-old British physicist communicates with the world by a barely perceptible twitch of his fingers, generating one computer-synthesized word approximately every six seconds ; consuming an entire day in composing a 10-page lecture . And the world awaits the words, for the same reason that astronomers search the heavens for the precious photos from remote galaxies .

A brief history of time observes that HAWKING was born on the anniversary of Galileo's death, holds Newton's chair at Cambridge University and is widely regarded as the most brilliant theoretical physicist since EINSTEIN .