English हिन्दी
Connect with us

India News

Death embraces Stephen Hawking, visionary scientist who never believed in afterlife

Published

on

Death embraces Stephen Hawking, visionary scientist who never believed in afterlife

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Years ago, Stephen Hawking, asked about the death and if he feared it, said: “I have lived with the prospect of an early death for the last 49 years. I’m not afraid of death, but I’m in no hurry to die. I have so much I want to do first. I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail. There is no heaven or afterlife for broken down computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark.”

That ‘computer’ stopped working on Wednesday, March 14, its failing ‘components’ giving in to the unrelenting laws of science after keeping the scientist going till the age of 76, although he had contracted a fatal neurone disease at the age of 21 and wasn’t expected to live long. Doctors had expected him to live for only two more years, but Hawking survived for more than half a century.

He won the Albert Einstein Award, the Wolf Prize, the Copley Medal, and the Fundamental Physics Prize. The Nobel prize, however, eluded him.

Hawking’s children, Lucy, Robert and Tim, said in a statement: “We are deeply saddened that our beloved father passed away today. He was a great scientist and an extraordinary man whose work and legacy will live on for many years. His courage and persistence with his brilliance and humour inspired people across the world.

“He once said: ‘It would not be much of a universe if it wasn’t home to the people you love.’ We will miss him for ever.”

The ailment Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) that paralysed him gradually spurred him to work harder but also contributed to the collapse of his two marriages, he wrote in a 2013 memoir “My Brief History”. In the book he related how he was first diagnosed: “I felt it was very unfair – why should this happen to me,” he wrote. “At the time, I thought my life was over and that I would never realise the potential I felt I had. But now, 50 years later, I can be quietly satisfied with my life.”

Hawking’s work ranged from the origins of the universe itself, through the tantalising prospect of time travel to the mysteries of space’s all-consuming black holes. Hawking’s first major breakthrough came in 1970, when he and Roger Penrose applied the mathematics of black holes to the universe and showed that a singularity, a region of infinite curvature in spacetime, lay in our distant past: the point from which came the big bang.

He also came up with the theory of cosmic inflation which says that the early universe went through a period of enormous. Hawking was among the first to show how quantum fluctuations – tiny variations in the distribution of matter – might give rise through inflation to the spread of galaxies in the universe. In these tiny ripples lay the seeds of stars, planets and life as we know it, said The Guardian.

Stephen Hawking wrote lucidly on the mysteries of space, time and black holes. His book, “A Brief History of Time”, published in 1988, became an international best seller, making him one of science’s biggest celebrities since Albert Einstein. One of the most complex books ever to achieve mass appeal, it stayed on the Sunday Times best-sellers list for no fewer than 237 weeks. It sold 10m copies and was translated into 40 different languages.

He followed up “A Brief History of Time” in 2001 with a sequel “The Universe in a Nutshell”, updating readers on concepts like super gravity, naked singularities and the possibility of an 11-dimensional universe.

As one of Isaac Newton’s successors as Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge University, Hawking was involved in the search for the great goal of physics – “a unified theory” that would resolve the contradictions between Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity, which describes the laws of gravity that govern the motion of large objects like planets, and the Theory of Quantum Mechanics, which deals with the world of subatomic particles.

He said finding a “theory of everything” would allow mankind to “know the mind of God.”

“A complete, consistent unified theory is only the first step: our goal is a complete understanding of the events around us, and of our own existence,” he wrote in “A Brief History of Time.”

He had said: “My goal is simple. It is a complete understanding of the universe, why it is as it is and why it exists at all.” In later years, though, he suggested a unified theory might not exist.

Hawking, reported The Guardian, was fond of scientific wagers – despite a knack for losing them. In 1975, he bet the US physicist Kip Thorne a subscription to Penthouse that the cosmic x-ray source Cygnus X-1 was not a black hole. He lost in 1990. In 1997, Hawking and Thorne bet John Preskill an encyclopaedia that information must be lost in black holes. Hawking conceded in 2004. In 2012, Hawking lost $100 to Gordon Kane for betting that the Higgs boson would not be discovered.

Hawking argued that humanity would have to spread out into space to survive, and warned against the potentially immense dangers of artificial intelligence, including autonomous weapons.

Hawking made cameo television appearances in “The Simpsons” and “Star Trek: The Next Generation” and his fans included U2 guitarist The Edge, who attended a January 2002 celebration of Hawking’s 60th birthday. The 2014 film “The Theory of Everything” was based on his life, with Eddie Redmayne winning the best actor Academy Award for his portrayal of the scientist. The film focused still more attention on Hawking’s remarkable achievements.

Some of his most outspoken comments offended the religious. In his 2010 book, Grand Design, he declared that God was not needed to set the universe going, and in an interview with the Guardian a year later, dismissed the comforts of religious belief.

Hawking said belief in a God who intervenes in the universe “to make sure the good guys win or get rewarded in the next life” was wishful thinking.

An atheist to boot, he once famously said: “One can’t prove that God doesn’t exist, but science makes God unnecessary.”

As mentioned in the beginning, he was no believer in any afterlife either. The belief that heaven or an afterlife awaits us is a “fairy story” for people afraid of death, he held.[/vc_column_text][vc_raw_html]JTNDYmxvY2txdW90ZSUyMGNsYXNzJTNEJTIydHdpdHRlci10d2VldCUyMiUyMGRhdGEtbGFuZyUzRCUyMmVuJTIyJTNFJTNDcCUyMGxhbmclM0QlMjJlbiUyMiUyMGRpciUzRCUyMmx0ciUyMiUzRVJlbWVtYmVyaW5nJTIwU3RlcGhlbiUyMEhhd2tpbmclMkMlMjBhJTIwcmVub3duZWQlMjBwaHlzaWNpc3QlMjBhbmQlMjBhbWJhc3NhZG9yJTIwb2YlMjBzY2llbmNlLiUyMEhpcyUyMHRoZW9yaWVzJTIwdW5sb2NrZWQlMjBhJTIwdW5pdmVyc2UlMjBvZiUyMHBvc3NpYmlsaXRpZXMlMjB0aGF0JTIwd2UlMjAlMjZhbXAlM0IlMjB0aGUlMjB3b3JsZCUyMGFyZSUyMGV4cGxvcmluZy4lMjBNYXklMjB5b3UlMjBrZWVwJTIwZmx5aW5nJTIwbGlrZSUyMHN1cGVybWFuJTIwaW4lMjBtaWNyb2dyYXZpdHklMkMlMjBhcyUyMHlvdSUyMHNhaWQlMjB0byUyMGFzdHJvbmF1dHMlMjBvbiUyMCUzQ2ElMjBocmVmJTNEJTIyaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZ0d2l0dGVyLmNvbSUyRlNwYWNlX1N0YXRpb24lM0ZyZWZfc3JjJTNEdHdzcmMlMjU1RXRmdyUyMiUzRSU0MFNwYWNlX1N0YXRpb24lM0MlMkZhJTNFJTIwaW4lMjAyMDE0JTIwJTNDYSUyMGhyZWYlM0QlMjJodHRwcyUzQSUyRiUyRnQuY28lMkZGZVI0ZmQyelo1JTIyJTNFcGljLnR3aXR0ZXIuY29tJTJGRmVSNGZkMnpaNSUzQyUyRmElM0UlM0MlMkZwJTNFJTI2bWRhc2glM0IlMjBOQVNBJTIwJTI4JTQwTkFTQSUyOSUyMCUzQ2ElMjBocmVmJTNEJTIyaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZ0d2l0dGVyLmNvbSUyRk5BU0ElMkZzdGF0dXMlMkY5NzM3ODczOTI1OTAxNzIxNjAlM0ZyZWZfc3JjJTNEdHdzcmMlMjU1RXRmdyUyMiUzRU1hcmNoJTIwMTQlMkMlMjAyMDE4JTNDJTJGYSUzRSUzQyUyRmJsb2NrcXVvdGUlM0UlMEElM0NzY3JpcHQlMjBhc3luYyUyMHNyYyUzRCUyMmh0dHBzJTNBJTJGJTJGcGxhdGZvcm0udHdpdHRlci5jb20lMkZ3aWRnZXRzLmpzJTIyJTIwY2hhcnNldCUzRCUyMnV0Zi04JTIyJTNFJTNDJTJGc2NyaXB0JTNFJTBB[/vc_raw_html][/vc_column][/vc_row]

India News

Indian Navy submarine collides with fishing boat near Goa coast, 2 fishermen missing

A spokesperson from the Navy told the media that eleven crew have been rescued so far.

Published

on

Indian Navy submarine collides with fishing boat near Goa coast, 2 fishermen missing

Indian Navy officials on Friday said that an Indian fishing vessel with a crew of 13 collided with an Indian Naval submarine near the Goa coast. 

Following the incident, a massive search and rescue operation has been launched by the Indian Navy, which has deployed six ships and aircraft. Reportedly, while 11 crew have been rescued, two are still missing.

The Ministry of Defence issued a statement and said that the vessel, Marthoma, collided with a Scorpene-class submarine about 70 nautical miles off the Goa coast. It added that search and rescue efforts for the remaining two are underway and are being coordinated with Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre Mumbai (MRCC). It further mentioned that additional assets including from the Coast Guard have been diverted to the area to augment the efforts.

The statement said that the cause of the incident is being investigated. Notably, Scorpene-class submarines are a major part of India’s naval power in the Indian Ocean as they can undertake multifarious types of missions, including anti-surface warfare, anti-submarine warfare, intelligence gathering, mine laying, and area surveillance.

Reports said that the state-of-the-art technology utilised for the construction of the Scorpene-class submarines has ensured superior stealth features such as advanced acoustic silencing techniques, low radiated noise levels, hydro-dynamically optimized shape and the ability to launch a crippling attack on the enemy using precision-guided weapons. Furthermore, the attack can be launched with both torpedoes and tube-launched anti-ship missiles, whilst underwater or on the surface.

Meanwhile, the Indian Navy in its statement said that 13 crew members were aboard the fishing vessel at the time of the collision. It added that while 11 crew have been rescued so far, two fishermen are still reported missing.

A spokesperson from the Navy told the media that eleven crew have been rescued so far. He stated that search and rescue efforts for the remaining two crew members of Marthoma are in progress and are being coordinated with the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC), Mumbai. Additional assets including from the Coast Guard have been diverted to the area to augment the efforts, he continued.

Continue Reading

India News

10 Naxalites killed in encounter in Chhattisgarh’s Sukma

The District Reserve Guard (DRG) and the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) continue their search operation in the area.

Published

on

Ten Naxalites were killed in an encounter with security forces in the Sukma district of Chhattisgarh on Friday.

The confrontation started in the morning within a forest area under the jurisdiction of the Bhejji police station, where a joint operation was being conducted by security personnel as part of an anti-Naxalite initiative, according to Inspector General of Police (Bastar Range) Sundarraj P. 

This operation was initiated following intelligence regarding the presence of Maoists connected to the Konta and Kistaram area committees, situated in the forested regions around Korajguda, Dantespuram, Nagaram, and Bhandarpadar villages.

So far, the bodies of ten Naxalites have been recovered at the scene. Additionally, a significant cache of weapons was seized, including an INSAS rifle, an AK-47, and a Self Loading Rifle (SLR). 

The District Reserve Guard (DRG) and the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) continue their search operation in the area. This incident contributes to the year-to-date total of 207 Naxalite fatalities recorded in various clashes across the Bastar region of Chhattisgarh, comprising seven districts. 

On Wednesday, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai met with Union Home Minister Amit Shah in the national capital, North Block. Their discussion focused on developmental progress in Naxal-affected areas of Chhattisgarh and efforts aimed at enhancing peace and stability in these regions. 

The Chief Minister emphasised that both the state government and security forces are diligently working to eradicate Naxal influence in Chhattisgarh, aligning with the Union Home Minister’s commitment to eliminate Naxalism by 2026.

“I met with Union Home Minister Amit Shah and updated him about the Naxal activities in Chhattisgarh. Over the past 11 months, close to 200 Naxals have been neutralized, and approximately 600-700 have surrendered. We are making significant strides towards the goal set by the Prime Minister and Home Minister to achieve a Naxal-free India by March 2026,” CM Sai told reporters following the meeting.

Continue Reading

India News

Canada fact checks own media, rejects report claiming PM Modi knew of Nijjar murder plot

The clarification comes after a Canadian newspaper cited an unnamed national security official, claiming the alleged plot to murder Nijjar was orchestrated by Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

Published

on

Canada fact checks own media, rejects report claiming PM Modi knew of Nijjar murder plot

The Canadian government clarified that there is no evidence to connect Prime Minister Narendra Modi or his top officials to any criminal activity in Canada, including the killing of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.

The clarification comes after a Canadian newspaper cited an unnamed national security official, claiming the alleged plot to murder Nijjar was orchestrated by Union Home Minister Amit Shah. The media report further alleged that PM Modi, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval were informed about the plan.

Nonetheless, the same report acknowledged that the Canadian government had no direct evidence to support these claims against PM Modi. Issuing a statement, the Canadian government distanced itself from these allegations, mentioning that there was no substantiating evidence.

The statement underlined that on October 14th, because of a significant and ongoing threat to public safety, the RCMP and officials took the extraordinary step of making public accusations of serious criminal activity in Canada perpetrated by agents of the government of India.

It added that the government of Canada has not stated, nor is it aware of evidence, linking Prime Minister Modi, Minister Jaishankar, or NSA Doval to the serious criminal activity within Canada. It remarked that any suggestion to the contrary is both speculative and inaccurate.

Earlier, India furiously rejected the Canadian daily’s report as ludicrous, terming it detrimental to diplomatic ties that have been frosty since Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau first accused India of involvement in Nijjar’s killing last year.

Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said that they do not normally comment on media reports, but such ludicrous statements made to a newspaper purportedly by a Canadian government source should be dismissed with the contempt they deserve. He added that smear campaigns like this only further damage our already strained ties.

Diplomatic ties between India and Canada weakened when the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) accused Indian government agents of involvement in criminal activities on Canadian soil, including murder, extortion, and intimidation. As the diplomatic rift intensified, both the countries expelled top envoys in response.

Hardeep Singh Nijjar was gunned down outside a gurdwara in Surrey, British Columbia, in June 2023. Earlier in 2024, Canadian authorities arrested and charged four Indian nationals for the murder.

Continue Reading

Trending

© Copyright 2022 APNLIVE.com