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Undergraduate years
Hawking began his university education at University College,
Oxford,[24] in October 1959 at the age of 17.[58] For the first 18
months, he was bored and lonely – he found the academic work
"ridiculously easy".[59][60] His physics tutor, Robert Berman, later
said, "It was only necessary for him to know that something could be
done, and he could do it without looking to see how other people did
it."[3] A change occurred during his second and third year when,
according to Berman, Hawking made more of an effort "to be one of
the boys". He developed into a popular, lively and witty college
member, interested in classical music and science fiction.[58] Part of
the transformation resulted from his decision to join the college boat
club, the University College Boat Club, where he coxed a rowing
crew.[61][62] The rowing coach at the time noted that Hawking
cultivated a daredevil image, steering his crew on risky courses that
led to damaged boats.[63][61]
Hawking estimated that he studied about 1,000 hours during his three
years at Oxford. These unimpressive study habits made sitting his
finals a challenge, and he decided to answer only theoretical physics
questions rather than those requiring factual knowledge. A first-class
honours degree was a condition of acceptance for his planned
graduate study in cosmology at the University of Cambridge.[64][65]
Anxious, he slept poorly the night before the examinations, and the
final result was on the borderline between first- and second-class
honours, making a viva (oral examination) necessary.[65][66]
Hawking was concerned that he was viewed as a lazy and difficult
student. So, when asked at the oral[clarification needed] to describe
his plans, he said, "If you award me a First, I will go to Cambridge. If
I receive a Second, I shall stay in Oxford, so I expect you will give me
a First."[65][67] He was held in higher regard than he believed; as
Berman commented, the examiners "were intelligent enough to realise
they were talking to someone far cleverer than most of
themselves".[65] After receiving a first-class BA (Hons.) degree in
physics and completing a trip to Iran with a friend, he began his
graduate work at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, in October
1962.[24][68][69]
Graduate years
Hawking's first year as a doctoral student was difficult. He was
initially disappointed to find that he had been assigned Dennis
William Sciama, one of the founders of modern cosmology, as a
supervisor rather than noted Yorkshire astronomer Fred
Hoyle,[70][71] and he found his training in mathematics inadequate
for work in general relativity and cosmology.[72] After being
diagnosed with motor neurone disease, Hawking fell into a depression
– though his doctors advised that he continue with his studies, he felt
there was little point.[73] His disease progressed more slowly than
doctors had predicted. Although Hawking had difficulty walking
unsupported, and his speech was almost unintelligible, an initial
diagnosis that he had only two years to live proved unfounded. With
Sciama's encouragement, he returned to his work.[74][75] Hawking
started developing a reputation for brilliance and brashness when he
publicly challenged the work of Fred Hoyle and his student Jayant
Narlikar at a lecture in June 1964.[76][77]
When Hawking began his graduate studies, there was much debate in
the physics community about the prevailing theories of the creation of
the universe: the Big Bang and Steady State theories.[78] Inspired by
Roger Penrose's theorem of a spacetime singularity in the centre of
black holes, Hawking applied the same thinking to the entire universe;
and, during 1965, he wrote his thesis on this topic.[79][80] Hawking's
thesis[81] was approved in 1966.[81] There were other positive
developments: Hawking received a research fellowship at Gonville
and Caius College at Cambridge;[82] he obtained his PhD degree in
applied mathematics and theoretical physics, specialising in general
relativity and cosmology, in March 1966;[83] and his essay
"Singularities and the Geometry of Space-Time" shared top honours
with one by Penrose to win that year's prestigious Adams
Prize.[84][83]
Career
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1966–1975
In his work, and in collaboration with Penrose, Hawking extended the
singularity theorem concepts first explored in his doctoral thesis. This
included not only the existence of singularities but also the theory that
the universe might have started as a singularity. Their joint essay was
the runner-up in the 1968 Gravity Research Foundation
competition.[85][86] In 1970 they published a proof that if the
universe obeys the general theory of relativity and fits any of the
models of physical cosmology developed by Alexander Friedmann,
then it must have begun as a singularity.[87][88][89] In 1969,
Hawking accepted a specially created Fellowship for Distinction in
Science to remain at Caius.[90]
In 1970, Hawking postulated what became known as the second law
of black hole dynamics, that the event horizon of a black hole can
never get smaller.[91] With James M. Bardeen and Brandon Carter,
he proposed the four laws of black hole mechanics, drawing an
analogy with thermodynamics.[92] To Hawking's irritation, Jacob
Bekenstein, a graduate student of John Wheeler, went further—and
ultimately correctly—to apply thermodynamic concepts
literally.[93][94] In the early 1970s, Hawking's work with Carter,
Werner Israel and David C. Robinson strongly supported Wheeler's
no-hair theorem, one that states that no matter what the original
material from which a black hole is created, it can be completely
described by the properties of mass, electrical charge and
rotation.[95][96] His essay titled "Black Holes" won the Gravity
Research Foundation Award in January 1971.[97] Hawking's first
book, The Large Scale Structure of Space-Time, written with George
Ellis, was published in 1973.[98]
1975–1990
Hawking returned to Cambridge in 1975 to a more academically
senior post, as reader in gravitational physics. The mid to late 1970s
were a period of growing public interest in black holes and the
physicists who were studying them. Hawking was regularly
interviewed for print and television.[115][116] He also received
increasing academic recognition of his work.[117] In 1975, he was
awarded both the Eddington Medal and the Pius XI Gold Medal, and
in 1976 the Dannie Heineman Prize, the Maxwell Prize and the
Hughes Medal.[118][119] He was appointed a professor with a chair
in gravitational physics in 1977.[120] The following year he received
the Albert Einstein Medal and an honorary doctorate from the
University of Oxford.[121][117]
Hawking did not rule out the existence of a Creator, asking in A Brief
History of Time "Is the unified theory so compelling that it brings
about its own existence?"[138] In his early work, Hawking spoke of
God in a metaphorical sense. In A Brief History of Time he wrote: "If
we discover a complete theory, it would be the ultimate triumph of
human reason – for then we should know the mind of God."[139] In
the same book he suggested that the existence of God was not
necessary to explain the origin of the universe. Later discussions with
Neil Turok led to the realisation that the existence of God was also
compatible with an open universe.[140]
1990–2000
Hawking outside, in his wheelchair, talking to David Gross and
Edward Witten
Hawking with string theorists David Gross and Edward Witten at the
2001 Strings Conference, TIFR, India
Hawking pursued his work in physics: in 1993 he co-edited a book on
Euclidean quantum gravity with Gary Gibbons and published a
collected edition of his own articles on black holes and the Big
Bang.[168] In 1994, at Cambridge's Newton Institute, Hawking and
Penrose delivered a series of six lectures that were published in 1996
as "The Nature of Space and Time".[169] In 1997, he conceded a
1991 public scientific wager made with Kip Thorne and John Preskill
of Caltech. Hawking had bet that Penrose's proposal of a "cosmic
censorship conjecture" – that there could be no "naked singularities"
unclothed within a horizon – was correct.[170] After discovering his
concession might have been premature, a new and more refined wager
was made. This one specified that such singularities would occur
without extra conditions.[171] The same year, Thorne, Hawking and
Preskill made another bet, this time concerning the black hole
information paradox.[172][173] Thorne and Hawking argued that
since general relativity made it impossible for black holes to radiate
and lose information, the mass-energy and information carried by
Hawking radiation must be "new", and not from inside the black hole
event horizon. Since this contradicted the quantum mechanics of
microcausality, quantum mechanics theory would need to be
rewritten. Preskill argued the opposite, that since quantum mechanics
suggests that the information emitted by a black hole relates to
information that fell in at an earlier time, the concept of black holes
given by general relativity must be modified in some way.[174]
2000–2018
Stephen Hawking sitting in his wheelchair inside
Hawking at the Bibliothèque nationale de France to inaugurate the
Laboratory of Astronomy and Particles in Paris, and the French
release of his work God Created the Integers, 5 May 2006
Hawking continued his writings for a popular audience, publishing
The Universe in a Nutshell in 2001,[179] and A Briefer History of
Time, which he wrote in 2005 with Leonard Mlodinow to update his
earlier works with the aim of making them accessible to a wider
audience, and God Created the Integers, which appeared in
2006.[180] Along with Thomas Hertog at CERN and Jim Hartle, from
2006 on Hawking developed a theory of "top-down cosmology",
which says that the universe had not one unique initial state but many
different ones, and therefore that it is inappropriate to formulate a
theory that predicts the universe's current configuration from one
particular initial state.[181] Top-down cosmology posits that the
present "selects" the past from a superposition of many possible
histories. In doing so, the theory suggests a possible resolution of the
fine-tuning question.[182][183]
Several buildings have been named after him, including the Stephen
W. Hawking Science Museum in San Salvador, El Salvador,[205] the
Stephen Hawking Building in Cambridge,[206] and the Stephen
Hawking Centre at the Perimeter Institute in Canada.[207]
Appropriately, given Hawking's association with time, he unveiled the
mechanical "Chronophage" (or time-eating) Corpus Clock at Corpus
Christi College, Cambridge in September 2008.[208][209]
In August 2015, Hawking said that not all information is lost when
something enters a black hole and there might be a possibility to
retrieve information from a black hole according to his theory.[217]
In July 2017, Hawking was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from
Imperial College London.[218]
Personal life
Eddie Brock
EddieBrock.jpg
Eddie Brock as Venom in The Amazing Spider-Man #300 (May
1988). Art by Todd McFarlane.
Publication information
Publisher Marvel Comics
First appearance As Eddie Brock:
Web of Spider-Man #18 (September 1986)
As Venom:
(cameo appearance)
The Amazing Spider-Man #299 (April 1988)
(full appearance)
The Amazing Spider-Man #300 (May 1988)[1]
As Anti-Venom:
The Amazing Spider-Man #569 (October 2008)
As Toxin:
Venom #17 (May 2012)
As Sleeper:
Venom First Host #3 (August 2018)
Created by David Michelinie
Todd McFarlane
In-story information
Alter ego Edward Charles Allan Brock
Team affiliations Sinister Six
Revengers[2]
Savage Six
Notable aliases Venom, Anti-Venom, Toxin, Sleeper
Abilities Alien symbiote grants:
Superhuman strength, speed, agility, and durability
Ability to cling to most surfaces
Organic webbing
Limited shapeshifting and camouflage
Symbiote's autonomous defense capabilities
Undetectable by Spider-Man's "Spider-sense"
Eddie Brock is a fictional character appearing in American comic
books published by Marvel Comics. The character was created by
David Michelinie and Todd McFarlane, and his earliest appearance
was a cameo in Web of Spider-Man #18 (September 1986),[3] before
making his first full appearance in The Amazing Spider-Man #300
(May 1988)[1] as the original and most well-known incarnation of
Venom. The character has since appeared in many Marvel Comics
publications, including his own series Venom. Introduced as a villain
of Spider-Man, the character becomes an anti-hero, working with and
against superheroes.
Contents
1 Publication history
1.1 Creation and conception
2 Fictional character biography
2.1 Backstory
2.2 Venom
2.3 Anti-hero
2.4 Return to villainy
2.5 Cancer and post-Venom
2.6 Anti-Venom
2.7 Bonded to Toxin
2.8 Return as Venom
3 Powers and abilities
3.1 As Venom
3.2 As Anti-Venom
4 Reception
5 Other versions
6 In other media
6.1 Television
6.2 Film
6.3 Video games
6.4 Novels
7 References
8 External links
Publication history
See also: Venom (comic book) and List of Venom titles
Creation and conception
Writer David Michelinie and artist Todd McFarlane are generally
credited with the character's creation, based on a number of plot ideas
and concepts from various other creators. The question of who created
the character of Venom became an issue of contention in 1993 when
Michelinie wrote to the comic book industry magazine Wizard, which
had referred to Michelinie in issue #17 as "co-creator" of Venom. In
his letter, printed in issue #21 (May 1993), Michelinie wrote that he
was the character's sole creator, while saying also he believed that
without McFarlane the character would not have attained the
popularity it did.[7]
Erik Larsen responded to Michelinie's letter with one of his own that
was printed in Wizard #23 (July 1993), in which he dismissed
Michelinie's contributions to the character, arguing that Michelinie
merely "swiped" the preexisting symbiote and its powers to place it
on a character whose motivations were poorly conceived, one-
dimensional, unbelievable, and clichéd. Larsen also argued that it was
McFarlane's rendition of the character that made it commercial.[10]
Venom
Venom begins a campaign of torment against Peter, who is still
unaware of his existence. He first pushes Peter in front of a moving
subway without activating his spider-sense,[22] and later terrorizes
Spider-Man's wife Mary Jane.[23] Venom baits Spider-Man to his
apartment for their first confrontation, where Venom reveals his true
identity to Spider-Man, claiming "You may call me Venom, for that's
what I'm paid to spew out these days!" Spider-Man discovers that the
Symbiote has completely bonded with Brock and cannot be killed
without also killing Brock. Eventually Venom is tricked into
weakening himself by expending too much webbing until the suit
lacks enough material to produce more.[19] Venom is incarcerated in
the Vault, from which he makes repeated escapes and escape
attempts, only to suffer defeats and returns to the Vault.[24][25][26]
Brock eventually fakes suicide and escapes after being taken to the
morgue.[27] During a battle with Spider-Man, the Symbiote is
seemingly killed by the plague-inducing villain Styx, giving its life to
protect Brock. Brock is incarcerated and Spider-Man disposes of the
Symbiote's remains.[28] The Symbiote survives by entering a
comatose state to fight off the illness[29] and it returns to Brock,
enabling him to again escape from jail. During the escape, the
symbiote asexually reproduces and leaves behind its spawn.[30] The
offspring quickly bonds to Brock's cell mate, Cletus Kasady, creating
Carnage.[30][31] Venom abducts Spider-Man and transports him to a
remote island to do battle. Spider-Man fakes his own death to
convince Venom that his vendetta is over. Venom, content with the
outcome, resigns himself to life on the island.[32] Spider-Man
eventually faces Carnage but is unable to defeat him. Spider-Man is
forced to ask Venom for help, promising him freedom in
exchange.[33] However, after they defeat Carnage, Spider-Man
betrays Venom (who had also resumed his plan of revenge and tried
to throttle the arachnoid hero to death) by summoning the Fantastic
Four and sending him back to prison.[34]
Anti-hero
After seeing a photo of Spider-Man's recently returned parents, Brock
escapes from prison,[35] and kidnaps them.[36] During the resulting
fight, Brock's ex-wife Anne Weying is nearly crushed under a falling
ferris wheel, but Spider-Man saves her. Seeing this act, Venom makes
peace with Spider-Man.[37] In Venom: Lethal Protector (1993),
Venom moves to San Francisco and acts as the protector of an
underground society of homeless people.[21] He is later taken
prisoner by the Life Foundation who harvest the last five spawn
within the symbiote to create super-powered policemen and Brock is
forcibly separated from the symbiote.[38] With Spider-Man's help,
Brock is reunited with the symbiote and they seemingly destroy his
spawn, Phage, Lasher, Riot, Scream and Agony, before escaping.[39]
After saving the homeless people, Venom is accepted into their
society and remains their protector.[40]
Return to villainy
When Ann is shot by a new Sin-Eater, Brock forces the Symbiote to
bond with her to heal her injuries.[56] In the process she temporarily
becomes She-Venom but Brock demands the Symbiote return after
Ann loses control and kills a pair of muggers, leaving Ann
traumatized.[57] Brock helps kill the new Sin-Eater.[58] Ann is taken
into custody by the police as they try to hunt Venom and Brock sends
her his Symbiote so she can escape.[59][60] As She-Venom she again
struggles to control herself, with Brock, Weying and current Spider-
Man Ben Reilly becoming caught in the middle of a joint DEA/FBI
operation against a major drug smuggler when Weying and Brock
rendezvous at the same location where the drug group are
meeting.[61] When Brock takes back the Symbiote, Anne tells him to
keep himself and the Symbiote away from her after witnessing his
brutality against the criminals.[62]
Brock is captured in his sewer hideout and put on trial, with Matt
Murdock acting in his defense, his symbiote held in check by a
chemical inhibitor.[63] Cletus Kassady is called as a witness, but
when the case becomes heated both Kassady and Brock overcome
their inhibitors.[64] Venom, Spider-Man, and Daredevil team up and
subdue Carnage. However, before the trial can continue Venom is
unexpectedly taken into custody by a secret government organization
offering him amnesty in exchange for him becoming their agent.[65]
Though Venom at first enjoyed his newfound immunities, he left after
being abandoned during a dangerous mission.[66] After receiving a
head wound, Eddie suffers amnesia. He is later separated from the
symbiote, which is presumed killed by the government Overreach
Committee.[67]
The symbiote survives and tracks down the amnesiac Brock, turning
him into Venom again. Venom infiltrates Ravencroft prison seeking
Carnage and absorbs the Carnage Symbiote.[68] Brock temporarily
joins the Sinister Six to get Spider-Man but after being betrayed by
them,[69] he begins hunting down the members for revenge. He
ultimately cripples Sandman by biting him and taking out a chunk of
his mass, leading to Sandman's apparent death.[70] He also causes
serious wounds to Electro and Kraven the Hunter.[volume & issue
needed]