How Has Stephen Hawking Lived Past 70 with ALS?
An expert on Lou Gehrig's disease explains what we know about this debilitating condition and how Hawking has beaten the odds
By Katherine Harmon on January 7, 2012 56
Credit: Wikimedia Commons/rubberpaw
Stephen Hawking turns 70 on Sunday, beating the odds of a daunting diagnosis by nearly half a century.
The famous theoretical physicist has helped to bring his ideas about black holes and quantum gravity to a broad public audience. For much of his time in the public eye, though, he has been confined to a wheelchair by a form of the motor-neuron disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). And since 1985 he has had to speak through his trademark computer system—which he operates with his cheek—and have around-the-clock care.
But his disease seems hardly to have slowed him down. Hawking spent 30 years as a full professor of mathematics at the University of Cambridge. And he is currently the director of research at the school's Center for Theoretical Cosmology.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/stephen-hawking-als/
