Stephen Hawking Dies at 76; His Mind Roamed the Cosmos

他琢磨著上帝的想法

可他不是浮士德

墨菲斯托強迫他

做了一場身體和大腦的交易

他卻說自己是黑暗的主人

他，斯蒂芬·霍金

譯者按

Stephen W. Hawking, the Cambridge University physicist and best-selling author who roamed the cosmos from a wheelchair, pondering the nature of gravity and the origin of the universe and becoming an emblem of human determination and curiosity, died early Wednesday at his home in Cambridge, England. He was 76.

His death was confirmed by a spokesman for Cambridge University.

劍橋大學(xué)物理學(xué)家和暢銷書作者、在輪椅上遨游宇宙、思考重力和宇宙起源的本質(zhì)、成為人類堅毅不拔和好奇心象征的斯蒂芬·霍金周三清晨在英格蘭劍橋家中去世，享年76歲，劍橋大學(xué)發(fā)言人確認(rèn)了他的死訊。

“Not since Albert Einstein has a scientist so captured the public imagination and endeared himself to tens of millions of people around the world,” Michio Kaku, a professor of theoretical physics at the City University of New York, said in an interview.

“阿爾伯特·愛因斯坦以來，沒有那個科學(xué)家激發(fā)了如此巨大的公眾想象，讓全世界數(shù)以千萬人喜愛?！奔~約城市大學(xué)理論物理學(xué)教授加來道雄接受采訪時說。

Dr. Hawking did that largely through his book “A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes,” published in 1988. It has sold more than 10 million copies and inspired a documentary film by Errol Morris. The 2014 film about his life, “The Theory of Everything,” was nominated for several Academy Awards and Eddie Redmayne, who played Dr. Hawking, won the Oscar for best actor.

霍金博士主要通過1988年出版的《時間簡史：從大爆炸到黑洞》實現(xiàn)了這個目標(biāo)。該書售出超過1000萬冊，艾洛爾·莫里斯還據(jù)此拍了紀(jì)錄片。2014年傳記電影《萬物理論》還獲得多項奧斯卡提名，飾演霍金的艾迪·雷德梅因獲得奧斯卡最佳男演員。

Scientifically, Dr. Hawking will be best remembered for a discovery so strange that it might be expressed in the form of a Zen koan: When is a black hole not black? When it explodes.

在科學(xué)上，霍金博士的發(fā)現(xiàn)如此奇特，用禪宗公案的話說：黑洞什么時候不是黑的？當(dāng)它爆炸時。

What is equally amazing is that he had a career at all. As a graduate student in 1963, he learned he had amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a neuromuscular wasting disease also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. He was given only a few years to live.

The disease reduced his bodily control to the flexing of a finger and voluntary eye movements but left his mental faculties untouched.

同樣讓人稱奇的是他的事業(yè)。1963年還是研究生時，他患上肌萎縮性脊髓側(cè)索硬化癥，是一種神經(jīng)肌肉消耗性疾病，也被稱為葛雷克氏癥。醫(yī)生說他只有幾年壽命。這種病讓他降低了他對身體的控制，只能動動手指，轉(zhuǎn)轉(zhuǎn)眼珠，但他的智力未受影響。

He went on to become his generation’s leader in exploring gravity and the properties of black holes, the bottomless gravitational pits so deep and dense that not even light can escape them.

他探索重力和黑洞性質(zhì)，成為他那一代科學(xué)家的領(lǐng)袖。黑洞是深不見底的重力坑，如此致密，連光都逃不出來。

That work led to a turning point in modern physics, playing itself out in the closing months of 1973 on the walls of his brain when Dr. Hawking set out to apply quantum theory, the weird laws that govern subatomic reality, to black holes. In a long and daunting calculation, Dr. Hawking discovered to his befuddlement that black holes were not really black at all. In fact, he found, they would eventually fizzle, leaking radiation and particles, and finally explode and disappear over the eons.

這項工作是現(xiàn)代物理學(xué)的轉(zhuǎn)折點，1973年最后幾個月在霍金博士的大腦皮層迸發(fā)出來，當(dāng)時他準(zhǔn)備將統(tǒng)治亞原子世界的奇異法則量子物理運用到黑洞中去。通過繁瑣和令人生畏的計算，霍金博士發(fā)現(xiàn)黑洞并不是全黑的，這讓他自己也感到困惑。事實上，他發(fā)現(xiàn)，他們最終會干癟，釋放輻射和粒子，最終爆炸并永遠消失。

Nobody, including Dr. Hawking, believed it at first — that particles could be coming out of a black hole. “I wasn’t looking for them at all,” he recalled in an interview in 1978. “I merely tripped over them. I was rather annoyed.”

最開始，連霍金自己都不相信，粒子會從黑洞里跑出來?！拔议_始壓根沒這么想，”他1978年接受采訪時說。“我是被絆倒在那里的，我也很惱火?！?/span>

That calculation, in a thesis published in 1974 in the journal Nature under the title “Black Hole Explosions?,” is hailed by scientists as the first great landmark in the struggle to find a single theory of nature — to connect gravity and quantum mechanics, those warring descriptions of the large and the small, to explain a universe that seems stranger than anybody had thought.

那個計算1974年發(fā)表在《自然》雜志上，題目是《黑洞爆炸？》。科學(xué)家們認(rèn)為這是發(fā)現(xiàn)大統(tǒng)一理論的第一個重要里程碑，將重力和量子力學(xué)聯(lián)系起來，解決宏觀與微觀不可調(diào)和的描述，解釋一個比任何人的想象都更加奇怪的宇宙。

The discovery of Hawking radiation, as it is known, turned black holes upside down. It transformed them from destroyers to creators — or at least to recyclers — and wrenched the dream of a final theory in a strange, new direction.

眾所周知，霍金輻射的發(fā)現(xiàn)把黑洞顛覆了，黑洞從毀滅者變成了創(chuàng)造者，至少是循環(huán)者，將最后理論之夢扳向了一個奇怪的新方向。

“You can ask what will happen to someone who jumps into a black hole,” Dr. Hawking said in an interview in 1978. “I certainly don’t think he will survive it.

“On the other hand,” he added, “if we send someone off to jump into a black hole, neither he nor his constituent atoms will come back, but his mass energy will come back. Maybe that applies to the whole universe.”

“你可以問有人跳進黑洞會發(fā)生什么，”霍金1978年接受采訪時說?！拔耶?dāng)然不認(rèn)為他還能活。但另一方面，如果我們讓誰跳進黑洞，他或組成他的原子都回不來了，但他的質(zhì)能會回來，可能這對全宇宙來說都適用?！?/span>

Dennis W. Sciama, a cosmologist and Dr. Hawking’s thesis adviser at Cambridge, called Hawking’s thesis in Nature “the most beautiful paper in the history of physics.”

宇宙學(xué)家、霍金在劍橋的論文導(dǎo)師丹尼斯·夏默將霍金在《自然》上發(fā)表的論文稱為“物理學(xué)史上最漂亮的論文”。

Edward Witten, a theorist at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, said: “Trying to understand Hawking’s discovery better has been a source of much fresh thinking for almost 40 years now, and we are probably still far from fully coming to grips with it. It still feels new.”

普林斯頓高級研究所理論學(xué)家愛德華·威騰說：“試圖更好理解霍金的發(fā)現(xiàn)，這在近40年來激發(fā)了很多新思想，我們可能還沒有完全把握，現(xiàn)在還覺得是新的?！?/span>

In 2002, Dr. Hawking said he wanted the formula for Hawking radiation to be engraved on his tombstone.

2002年，霍金博士說他希望把霍金輻射公式作為自己的墓志銘。

He was a man who pushed the limits — in his intellectual life, to be sure, but also in his professional and personal lives. He traveled the globe to scientific meetings, visiting every continent, including Antarctica; wrote best-selling books about his work; married twice; fathered three children; and was not above appearing on “The Simpsons,” “Star Trek: The Next Generation” or “The Big Bang Theory.”

他是拓展邊緣的男人，不僅在智識上，而且在事業(yè)和生活中。他到全球各處參加科學(xué)回憶，造訪了每個大洲，包括南極洲。他寫了關(guān)于自己研究的暢銷書，結(jié)了兩次婚，是三個孩子的父親，還出演《辛普森一家人》《星際旅行：下一代》和《大爆炸理論》中。

He celebrated his 60th birthday by going up in a hot-air balloon. The same week, he also crashed his electric-powered wheelchair while speeding around a corner in Cambridge, breaking his leg.

他60歲生日時坐著熱氣球升空。就在當(dāng)周，他坐著電動輪椅在劍橋一個街區(qū)穿行時摔斷了腿。

In April 2007, a few months after his 65th birthday, he took part in a zero-gravity flight aboard a specially equipped Boeing 727, a padded aircraft that flies a roller-coaster trajectory to produce fleeting periods of weightlessness. 

2007年4月，65歲生日后幾個月，他參加了波音727飛機改裝的失重飛行，飛行器在過山車軌道上飛行，產(chǎn)生短暫的失重感。

Asked why he took such risks, Dr. Hawking said, “I want to show that people need not be limited by physical handicaps as long as they are not disabled in spirit.”

被問到為什么冒這個險，霍金博士說：“我想表達人們不要被物理的殘疾所限，只要精神上堅毅。”

His own spirit left many in awe.

他的精神讓很多人感到震撼。

“What a triumph his life has been,” said Martin Rees, a Cambridge University cosmologist, the astronomer royal of Britain and Dr. Hawking’s longtime colleague. “His name will live in the annals of science; millions have had their cosmic horizons widened by his best-selling books; and even more, around the world, have been inspired by a unique example of achievement against all the odds — a manifestation of amazing willpower and determination.”

“他的生命多么成功，”劍橋大學(xué)宇宙學(xué)家馬丁·里斯說，他是霍金的老同事?！八拿謱⑤d入科學(xué)史冊，他的暢銷書讓普羅大眾拓寬了對宇宙學(xué)邊界的理解，他克服苦難取得獨一無二的成就甚至讓全世界都收到鼓舞，體現(xiàn)出驚人的毅力和決心?！?/span>

Stephen William Hawking was born in Oxford, England, on Jan. 8, 1942 — 300 years to the day, he liked to point out, after the death of Galileo, who had begun the study of gravity. His mother, the former Isobel Walker, had gone to Oxford to avoid the bombs that fell nightly during the Blitz of London. His father, Frank Hawking, was a prominent research biologist.

史蒂芬·威廉·霍金1942年1月8日出生在英格蘭牛津，他喜歡說，自己生于距開始研究重力的伽利略死后300年。他母親原名伊索貝爾·沃克，為了躲避倫敦大轟炸來到牛津避難。父親弗蘭克·霍金是出色的生物學(xué)家。

The oldest of four children, Stephen was a mediocre student at St. Albans School in London, though his innate brilliance was recognized by some classmates and teachers.

他是四個孩子的老大，在倫敦圣阿爾班斯學(xué)校表現(xiàn)平平，盡管有些同學(xué)和老師發(fā)現(xiàn)他不一般。

Later, at University College, Oxford, he found his studies in mathematics and physics so easy that he rarely consulted a book or took notes. He got by with a thousand hours of work in three years, or one hour a day, he estimated. “Nothing seemed worth making an effort for,” he said.

后來在牛橋大學(xué)學(xué)院，他發(fā)現(xiàn)自己擅長數(shù)學(xué)和物理學(xué)，他很少查書或記筆記。他估計三年里用了一千個小時就搞定了，大概每天一小時?！翱雌饋砗苋菀??！彼f。

The only subject he found exciting was cosmology because, he said, it dealt with “the big question: Where did the universe come from?”

他唯一覺得有意思的就是宇宙學(xué)，宇宙學(xué)處理一個大問題，“宇宙從何而來？”

Upon graduation, he moved to Cambridge. Before he could begin his research, however, he was stricken by what his research adviser, Dr. Sciama, came to call “that terrible thing.”

畢業(yè)后，他回到劍橋，然而開始研究前，他的導(dǎo)師稱有件“糟糕的事”。

The young Hawking had been experiencing occasional weakness and falling spells for several years. Shortly after his 21st birthday, in 1963, doctors told him that he had amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. They gave him less than three years to live.

His first response was severe depression. He dreamed he was going to be executed, he said. 

幾年里，年輕的霍金有時會很虛弱，總生病。21歲生日后不久，1963年，醫(yī)生告訴他患了肌萎縮性脊髓側(cè)索硬化癥，壽命只有三年。他的第一反應(yīng)是很悲傷，他還想過自裁。

Then, against all odds, the disease appeared to stabilize. Though he was slowly losing control of his muscles, he was still able to walk short distances and perform simple tasks, though laboriously, like dressing and undressing. He felt a new sense of purpose.

但奇跡的是，病開始穩(wěn)定下來。盡管他慢慢失去對肌肉的控制，他仍然能在附近走走，做些簡單的事，盡管穿衣服脫衣服這樣的事都很吃力。他找到了新的使命感。

“When you are faced with the possibility of an early death,” he recalled, “it makes you realize that life is worth living and that there are a lot of things you want to do.”

“當(dāng)你可能很早去世，”他回憶說?！斑@會讓你意識到生命可貴，有許多事情想做?！?/span>

In 1965, he married Jane Wilde, a student of linguistics. Now, by his own account, he not only had “something to live for”; he also had to find a job, which gave him an incentive to work seriously toward his doctorate.

1965年，他與語言學(xué)專業(yè)的簡·王爾德結(jié)婚，用他自己的話說，現(xiàn)在他不僅“有生活的目標(biāo)了”，還找了份工作，讓他有動力拿到博士學(xué)位。

His illness, however, had robbed him of the ability to write down the long chains of equations that are the tools of the cosmologist’s trade. Characteristically, he turned this handicap into a strength, gathering his energies for daring leaps of thought, which, in his later years, he often left for others to codify in proper mathematical language.

可他的病剝奪了他寫下大公式的能力，可這正是宇宙學(xué)家要干的事。但他把身體殘疾轉(zhuǎn)化為力量，在思想上大踏步前進，晚年時，他經(jīng)常讓別人用適合的數(shù)學(xué)語言寫公式。

“People have the mistaken impression that mathematics is just equations,” Dr. Hawking said. “In fact, equations are just the boring part of mathematics.”

“人們錯以為數(shù)學(xué)只有公式，”霍金博士說?！笆聦嵣?，公式只是數(shù)學(xué)最枯燥的部分。”

By necessity, he concentrated on problems that could be attacked through “pictures and diagrams,” adopting geometric techniques that had been devised in the early 1960s by the mathematician Roger Penrose and a fellow Cambridge colleague, Brandon Carter, to study general relativity, Einstein’s theory of gravity.

沒有辦法，他只能專注于可以用“圖畫和圖表”解決的問題，使用六十年代初彭羅斯和劍橋同事布蘭森·卡特設(shè)計的幾何技巧來研究愛因斯坦的廣義相對論。

Black holes are a natural prediction of that theory, which explains how mass and energy “curve” space, the way a sleeping person causes a mattress to sag. Light rays will bend as they traverse a gravitational field, just as a marble rolling on the sagging mattress will follow an arc around the sleeper.

黑洞是那個理論的自然推導(dǎo)，即質(zhì)量和能量如何“彎曲”空間，就像睡覺時一個人如何把床墊壓塌下去。光線經(jīng)過重力場時會發(fā)生彎曲，正如一個在有人睡覺的床上滾動的彈珠。

Too much mass or energy in one spot could cause space to sag without end; an object that was dense enough, like a massive collapsing star, could wrap space around itself like a magician’s cloak and disappear, shrinking inside to a point of infinite density called a singularity, a cosmic dead end, where the known laws of physics would break down: a black hole.

一個點上的質(zhì)量或能量太大就會導(dǎo)致空間沒有止境的塌縮，一個足夠致密的物體，例如巨大的坍縮恒星，會扭曲周圍的空間，就像魔術(shù)師的袍子，然后就消失了，收縮到無限致密的一個點，被稱為奇點，這是宇宙終點，已知的物理學(xué)法則都不成立了：黑洞。

Einstein himself thought this was absurd when the possibility was pointed out to him.

愛因斯坦對這種可能性都覺得荒謬。

Using the Hubble Space Telescope and other sophisticated tools of observation and analysis, however, astronomers have identified hundreds of objects that are too massive and dark to be anything but black holes, including a supermassive one at the center of the Milky Way. According to current theory, the universe should contain billions more.

然而使用哈勃太空望遠鏡和其他精密的觀察和分析工具，天文學(xué)家發(fā)現(xiàn)數(shù)百個天體，巨大而黑暗，只能是黑洞，而且在銀河系中心還有一個超大質(zhì)量黑洞。根據(jù)當(dāng)前理論，宇宙可能有數(shù)十億個黑洞。

As part of his Ph.D. thesis in 1966, Dr. Hawking showed that when you ran the film of the expanding universe backward, you would find that such a singularity had to have existed sometime in cosmic history; space and time, that is, must have had a beginning. He, Dr. Penrose and a rotating cast of colleagues went on to publish a series of theorems about the behavior of black holes and the dire fate of anything caught in them.

1966年博士論文中，霍金博士表明，當(dāng)你像看電影一樣，把宇宙擴張的進程倒過來放映，你會發(fā)現(xiàn)奇點肯定存在于宇宙歷史上的某一點，空間和時間肯定有一個起點。他和彭羅斯博士及其他同事發(fā)表了關(guān)于黑洞行為和進入黑洞物體悲慘命運的一系列理論。

Dr. Hawking’s signature breakthrough resulted from a feud with the Israeli theoretical physicist Jacob Bekenstein, then a Princeton graduate student, about whether black holes could be said to have entropy, a thermodynamic measure of disorder. Dr. Bekenstein said they could, pointing out a close analogy between the laws that Dr. Hawking and his colleagues had derived for black holes and the laws of thermodynamics.

霍金最出名的突破源自他與以色列理論物理學(xué)家雅各布·貝肯斯坦的口角，當(dāng)時貝肯斯坦還是普林斯頓的研究生，他們爭論黑洞是否存在熵，熵是混亂的熱動力學(xué)尺度。貝肯斯坦說可以將霍金和其同事從黑洞得出的法則與熱力學(xué)法則做近似類比，黑洞存在熵。

Dr. Hawking said no. To have entropy, a black hole would have to have a temperature. But warm objects, from a forehead to a star, radiate a mixture of electromagnetic radiation, depending on their exact temperatures. Nothing could escape a black hole, and so its temperature had to be zero. “I was very down on Bekenstein,” Dr. Hawking recalled.

但霍金博士說沒有。如果要有熵，黑洞不得不有溫度。但熱物體，從你的腦門大到恒星，都會有電磁輻射，根據(jù)其精確的溫度。沒有什么能從黑洞跑出來，因此溫度必須是零?！柏惪纤固棺屓撕懿凰??！被艚鸹貞浾f。

To settle the question, Dr. Hawking decided to investigate the properties of atom-size black holes. This, however, required adding quantum mechanics, the paradoxical rules of the atomic and subatomic world, to gravity, a feat that had never been accomplished. Friends turned the pages of quantum theory textbooks as Dr. Hawking sat motionless staring at them for months. They wondered if he was finally in over his head.

為了解決這個問題，霍金決定調(diào)查黑洞的原子尺度特征。然而，這就要在重力中引入量子力學(xué)，原子和亞原子世界的矛盾法則，以前從沒人嘗試過。朋友幫他翻開量子理論教科書，霍金一動不動地盯著看了幾個月。他們都想知道他在看什么。

When he eventually succeeded in doing the calculation in his head, it indicated to his surprise that particles and radiation were spewing out of black holes. Dr. Hawking became convinced that his calculation was correct when he realized that the outgoing radiation would have a thermal spectrum characteristic of the heat radiated by any warm body, from a star to a fevered forehead. Dr. Bekenstein had been right.

當(dāng)他最終在大腦中成功完成計算時，結(jié)果表明粒子和輻射會從黑洞中吐出來，這讓他自己感到吃驚?；艚鸩┦肯嘈庞嬎闶钦_的，他意識到跑出來的輻射具有溫度物體輻射熱量的熱線譜，不管是恒星還是發(fā)熱的腦門。貝肯斯坦博士說得對。

Dr. Hawking even figured out a way to explain how particles might escape a black hole. According to quantum principles, the space near a black hole would be teeming with “virtual” particles that would flash into existence in matched particle-and-antiparticle pairs — like electrons and their evil twin opposites, positrons — out of energy borrowed from the hole’s intense gravitational field.

霍金甚至想出粒子逃離黑洞的方式。根據(jù)量子理論，黑洞附近的空間充滿了虛粒子，從黑洞巨大的引力場中借來能量，閃現(xiàn)出正反粒子對，例如電子和它邪惡的正電子。

They would then meet and annihilate each other in a flash of energy, repaying the debt for their brief existence. But if one of the pair fell into the black hole, the other one would be free to wander away and become real. It would appear to be coming from the black hole and taking energy away from it.

他們會相互湮滅并釋放能量，償還借來的能量。但如果這一對中其中一個掉入黑洞，另外一個就自由了，成了真的粒子?？雌饋砭秃孟駨暮诙粗衼?，從中拿走了一點能量。

But those, he cautioned, were just words. The truth was in the math. “The most important thing about Hawking radiation is that it shows that the black hole is not cut off from the rest of the universe,” Dr. Hawking said.

但他警告說，這些只是嘴上一說，真相要到數(shù)學(xué)中尋找?！盎艚疠椛渥钪匾氖牵砻骱诙床皇呛陀钪鏇]有關(guān)系的。”

It also meant that black holes had a temperature and had entropy. In thermodynamics, entropy is a measure of wasted heat. But it is also a measure of the amount of information — the number of bits — needed to describe what is in a black hole. Curiously, the number of bits is proportional to the black hole’s surface area, not its volume, meaning that the amount of information you could stuff into a black hole is limited by its area, not, as one might na?vely think, its volume.

黑洞有溫度，有熵。在熱力學(xué)中，熵是余熱的尺度，同時也是信息的尺度，即比特數(shù)，黑洞中有什么需要用它來描述。令人稱奇，比特數(shù)與黑洞的表面積成比例，而非其體積，這意味著你塞進黑洞的信息量收面積限制，而非像有人天真得以為，受體積限制。

That result has become a litmus test for string theory and other pretenders to a theory of quantum gravity. It has also led to speculations that we live in a holographic universe, in which three-dimensional space is some kind of illusion.

這個結(jié)果成為弦理論和其他所謂量子重力理論的石蕊實驗。這讓人猜想我們生活在一個全息宇宙中，三維空間是某種幻象。

Andrew Strominger, a Harvard string theorist, said of the holographic theory, “If it’s really true, it’s a deep and beautiful property of our universe — but not an obvious one.”

哈佛弦理論專家安德魯·斯托明戈談到全息理論時說，“如果這是真的，這是我們宇宙最深刻和最美麗的特征，但卻很難看出來?！?/span>

The discovery of black hole radiation also led to a 30-year controversy over the fate of things that had fallen into a black hole.

黑洞輻射的發(fā)現(xiàn)也引發(fā)對掉入黑洞命運如何長達三十年的爭論。

Dr. Hawking initially said that detailed information about whatever had fallen in would be lost forever because the particles coming out would be completely random, erasing whatever patterns had been present when they first fell in. 

霍金博士開始說，掉入黑洞的具體信息會永遠消失，因為吐出來的粒子完全是隨機的，消除了掉進去時擁有的秩序。

Paraphrasing Einstein’s complaint about the randomness inherent in quantum mechanics, Dr. Hawking said, “God not only plays dice with the universe, but sometimes throws them where they can’t be seen.”

借用愛因斯坦對量子理論隨機性表達不滿時的比喻，霍金說：“上帝不僅在宇宙里擲骰子，有時還以你看不見的方式擲。”

Many particle physicists protested that this violated a tenet of quantum physics, which says that knowledge is always preserved and can be retrieved. Leonard Susskind, a Stanford physicist who carried on the argument for decades, said, “Stephen correctly understood that if this was true, it would lead to the downfall of much of 20th-century physics.”

許多粒子學(xué)家反對說，這違反了量子物理的規(guī)定，后者說信息總能得以保存并取回。參與爭論幾十年的斯坦福物理學(xué)家利奧納德·蘇斯坎德說：“斯蒂芬正確理解到，如果這是真的，將會導(dǎo)致20世紀(jì)大多數(shù)物理學(xué)的崩塌?！?/span>

On another occasion, he characterized Dr. Hawking to his face as “one of the most obstinate people in the world; no, he is the most infuriating person in the universe.” Dr. Hawking grinned.

在另一個場合，他當(dāng)面說霍金博士是“世界上最固執(zhí)的人之一，不，他是宇宙里最讓人惱火的人。”霍金博士咧嘴笑了。

Dr. Hawking admitted defeat in 2004. Whatever information goes into a black hole will come back out when it explodes. One consequence, he noted sadly, was that one could not use black holes to escape to another universe. “I’m sorry to disappoint science fiction fans,” he said.

2014年，霍金承認(rèn)失敗。不論什么信息進入黑洞，在黑洞爆炸時都吐出來，他悲傷地說，一個后果是人們沒法利用黑洞逃到另一個宇宙去。“我很遺憾讓科幻迷們失望了。”

Despite his concession, however, the information paradox, as it is known, has become one of the hottest and deepest topics in theoretical physics. Physicists say they still do not know how information gets in or out of black holes.

然而，雖然做出了讓步，眾所周知的信息悖論成為理論物理學(xué)最熱門和最深刻的話題。物理學(xué)家說，他們不知道信息怎么進出黑洞的。

In 1974, Dr. Hawking was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, the world’s oldest scientific organization; in 1982, he was appointed to the Lucasian Chair of Mathematics at Cambridge, a post once held by Isaac Newton. “They say it’s Newton’s chair, but obviously it’s been changed,” he liked to quip.

1974年，霍金博士當(dāng)選皇家學(xué)會會員，這是世界上最古老的科學(xué)組織。1982年，他被任命為劍橋盧卡斯數(shù)學(xué)教席，該教席曾經(jīng)由艾薩克·牛頓執(zhí)掌?！八麄冋f那是牛頓的位子，但顯然現(xiàn)在不是了，”他喜歡打趣說。

Dr. Hawking also made yearly visits to the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, which became like a second home. In 2008, he joined the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo, Ontario, as a visiting researcher.

霍金每年都去加州理工，那里成了他的第二故鄉(xiāng)。2008年，他加入安大略滑鐵盧理論物理圓周研究所，成為一名訪問學(xué)者。

Having conquered black holes, Dr. Hawking set his sights on the origin of the universe and on eliminating that pesky singularity at the beginning of time from models of cosmology. If the laws of physics could break down there, they could break down everywhere.

研究完黑洞后，霍金博士盯上了宇宙起源，并在宇宙模型的時間之初消除討厭的奇點。如果物理法則在那里不適用，它在哪里都可能不適用。

In a meeting at the Vatican in 1982, he suggested that in the final theory there should be no place or time when the laws broke down, even at the beginning. He called the notion the “no boundary” proposal.

1982年在梵蒂岡開會，他提出終極理論中無所謂時空，即便在宇宙之初。他把這個概念成為“無邊界”提議。

With James Hartle of the Institute for Theoretical Physics in Santa Barbara, Calif., Dr. Hawking envisioned the history of the universe as a sphere like the Earth. Cosmic time corresponds to latitude, starting with zero at the North Pole and progressing southward.

加州圣塔巴拉拉理論物理學(xué)研究所詹姆斯·哈特爾想想宇宙的歷史就像地球一樣的球體。宇宙時間和緯度對應(yīng)，從北極的零緯度開始，逐漸向南。

Although time started there, the North Pole was nothing special; the same laws applied there as everywhere else. Asking what happened before the Big Bang, Dr. Hawking said, was like asking what was a mile north of the North Pole — it was not any place, or any time.

盡管時間在那里開始，北極卻沒什么特別，那里和其他地方一樣有同樣的法則。被問到大爆炸以前發(fā)生了什么，霍金說，就像問北極向北一英里有什么一樣，沒有那個地方，沒有那個時間。

By then string theory, which claimed finally to explain both gravity and the other forces and particles of nature as tiny microscopically vibrating strings, like notes on a violin, was the leading candidate for a “theory of everything.”

當(dāng)時的弦理論，宣稱最終解釋了重力和其他力以及粒子，它們都是微小的震動的弦，就像小提琴上的樂音，當(dāng)時是“萬物理論”的主要候選者。

In “A Brief History of Time,” Dr. Hawking concluded that “if we do discover a complete theory” of the universe, “it should in time be understandable in broad principle by everyone, not just a few scientists.”

在《時間簡史》中，霍金總結(jié)到：“如果我們發(fā)現(xiàn)了宇宙的所有理論”，“所有人都應(yīng)該理解，而非只有幾個科學(xué)家理解?！?/span>

He added, “Then we shall all, philosophers, scientists and just ordinary people, be able to take part in the discussion of why it is that we and the universe exist.”

他還說：“到那時，所有哲學(xué)家、科學(xué)家和普通人都可以參與我們和宇宙何以存在的討論?！?/span>

Dr. Hawking retained some control over his speech up to 1985. But on a trip to Switzerland, he came down with pneumonia. The doctors asked Jane if she wanted his life support turned off, but she said no. To save his life, doctors inserted a breathing tube. He survived, but his voice was permanently silenced.

到1985年，霍金還能說話。但去瑞士的途中，他得了肺炎。醫(yī)生問妻子是不是要結(jié)束生命支持，妻子說不。為了拯救他的生命，醫(yī)生上了呼吸機，他活了下來，但永遠不能說話了。

It appeared for a time that he would be able to communicate only by pointing at individual letters on an alphabet board. But when a computer expert, Walter Woltosz, heard about Dr. Hawking’s condition, he offered him a program he had written called Equalizer. By clicking a switch with his still-functioning fingers, Dr. Hawking was able to browse through menus that contained all the letters and more than 2,500 words.

他一度只能通過在字母表上指字母進行交流。但電腦專家沃爾特·沃爾托茨聽說霍金博士的情況后，寫了一個程序。通過用還可以活動的手指點擊，霍金博士能夠查看菜單，菜單中有所有字母和超過2500個單詞。

Word by word — and when necessary, letter by letter — he could build up sentences on the computer screen and send them to a speech synthesizer that vocalized for him. The entire apparatus was fitted to his motorized wheelchair.

他逐字在電腦屏幕上打字，并通過語音合成器發(fā)聲。整個設(shè)備都按在馬達輪椅上。

Even when too weak to move a finger, he communicated through the computer by way of an infrared beam, which he activated by twitching his right cheek or blinking his eye. The system was expanded to allow him to open and close the doors in his office and to use the telephone and internet without aid.

他虛弱地動不了手指時，通過紅外光束與計算機交流，他抽動右臉或眨眼來操控。這一系統(tǒng)升級讓他可以不讓人幫助就在辦公室開門關(guān)門，用電話和上網(wǎng)。

Although he averaged fewer than 15 words per minute, Dr. Hawking found he could speak through the computer better than he had before losing his voice. His only complaint, he confided, was that the speech synthesizer, manufactured in California, had given him an American accent.

盡管他每分鐘說不了15個詞，霍金發(fā)現(xiàn)他用計算機說話比以前還順暢。他承認(rèn)，唯一的問題是加州生產(chǎn)的語音合成器，讓他帶有美國腔。

His decision to write “A Brief History of Time” was prompted, he said, by a desire to share his excitement about “the discoveries that have been made about the universe” with “the public that paid for the research.” He wanted to make the ideas so accessible that the book would be sold in airports.

他說，決定寫《時間簡史》因為他欣喜地想向“付錢支持研究的公眾”分享“關(guān)于宇宙的各種發(fā)現(xiàn)”。他想讓讓這些想法人人都能知道，以至于機場都賣他的書。

He also hoped to earn enough money to pay for his children’s education. He did. The book’s extraordinary success made him wealthy, a hero to disabled people everywhere and even more famous.

他還希望賺足夠的錢支付孩子的學(xué)費。他確實賺了不少。這本書取得非同凡響的成功，他變得很富有，成為所有殘疾人的英雄。

Asked by New Scientist magazine what he thought about most, Dr. Hawking answered: “Women. They are a complete mystery.”

《新科學(xué)家》雜志問他思考什么最多時，他說，“女人，她們絕對是個謎。”

In 1990, Dr. Hawking and his wife separated after 25 years of marriage; Jane Hawking wrote about their years together in two books, “Music to Move the Stars: A Life With Stephen Hawking” and “Traveling to Infinity: My Life With Stephen.” The latter became the basis of the 2014 movie “The Theory of Everything.”

1990年，霍金和妻子結(jié)婚25年后離婚；簡·霍金寫了兩本書《移動星辰的音樂：與斯蒂芬·霍金生活》和《奔向無限：我與斯蒂芬的生活》。2014年電影《萬物理論》以后一本書為藍本改寫。

In 1995, he married Elaine Mason, a nurse who had cared for him since his bout of pneumonia. She had been married to David Mason, the engineer who had attached Dr. Hawking’s speech synthesizer to his wheelchair.

他1995年娶了愛蓮·梅森，自從患肺炎以來就照顧她的護士。她前夫是戴維·梅森，給霍金博士輪椅上安聲音合成器的工程師。

In 2004, British newspapers reported that the Cambridge police were investigating allegations that Elaine had abused Dr. Hawking, but no charges were filed, and Dr. Hawking denied the accusations. They agreed to divorce in 2006.

2004年，英國報紙報道，劍橋警察調(diào)查愛蓮虐待霍金，但并未提起訴訟，霍金否認(rèn)了指控。他們2006年協(xié)議離婚。

A complete list of survivors was not immediately available, but on Wednesday morning, his children, Robert, Lucy and Tim, released the following 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 forever.”

霍金身后的家人究竟有多少還不清楚，但周三清晨，子女羅伯特、露西和蒂姆發(fā)表了聲明：我們深感悲痛，我們親愛的父親今天去世。他是偉大的科學(xué)家和了不起的人，他的工作和遺產(chǎn)將傳承多年。他的勇氣和堅持，聰明和幽默，激勵了全世界的人。他曾說：“如果宇宙不是我們所愛的人的家園，那它根本沒什么了不起的?！蔽覀冇肋h想念他。

Among his many honors, Dr. Hawking was named a commander of the British Empire in 1982. In the summer of 2012, he had a star role in the opening of the Paralympics Games in London. The only thing lacking was the Nobel Prize, and his explanation for this was characteristically pithy: “The Nobel is given only for theoretical work that has been confirmed by observation. It is very, very difficult to observe the things I have worked on.”

霍金獲得眾多榮譽中，其中包括1982年被任命為英帝國司令官。2012年夏天，倫敦殘奧會開幕式，他擔(dān)當(dāng)重要角色。他唯一的缺憾是沒有獲得諾貝爾獎，他對此的解釋很簡潔：“諾貝爾只針對那些被觀察確認(rèn)了的理論工作，我們干的事非常難觀察到?！?/span>

Dr. Hawking was a strong advocate of space exploration, saying it was essential to the long-term survival of the human race. “Life on Earth is at the ever-increasing risk of being wiped out by a disaster, such as sudden global nuclear war, a genetically engineered virus or other dangers we have not yet thought of,” he told an audience in Hong Kong in 2007.

霍金堅決支持星際探索，表示這是人類長期生存的關(guān)鍵。“在地球上生活，被一場災(zāi)難掃清的風(fēng)險與日俱增，例如突然發(fā)生全球核戰(zhàn)爭，基因編輯病毒或我們想象不到的其他危險，”他2007年在香港說。

Nothing raised as much furor, however, as his increasingly scathing remarks about religion. One attraction of the no-boundary proposal for Dr. Hawking was that there was no need to appeal to anything outside the universe, like God, to explain how it began.

然而，他對宗教日益刻薄引發(fā)了眾多爭議?；艚馃o邊界建議的吸引力之一就在于無需求助于宇宙之外的上帝就可以解釋宇宙是如何開始的。

In “A Brief History of Time,” he had referred to the “mind of God,” but in “The Grand Design,” a 2011 book he wrote with Leonard Mlodinow, he was more bleak about religion. “It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper,” he wrote, referring to the British term for a firecracker fuse, “and set the universe going.”

在《時間簡史》中，他提到了“上帝的想法”，但2011年月倫納德·姆沃迪瑙合著的《大設(shè)計》一書中，他對宗教更尖刻?！皼]必要請上帝來點燃藍色導(dǎo)火紙，啟動宇宙，”他寫道，這是英國對火捻的說法。

He went further in an interview that year in The Guardian, saying: “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.”

當(dāng)年接受《衛(wèi)報》采訪時，他進一步說：“我認(rèn)為大腦是一臺計算機，零件不動了就不工作了，壞了的計算機沒有天堂和來世，這是給害怕黑暗的人們講的童話故事?！?/span>

Having spent the best part of his life grappling with black holes and cosmic doom, Dr. Hawking had no fear of the dark.

他幾乎一生都在研究黑洞和宇宙毀滅，霍金博士不懼怕黑暗。

“They’re named black holes because they are related to human fears of being destroyed or gobbled up,” he once told an interviewer. “I don’t have fears of being thrown into them. I understand them. I feel in a sense that I am their master.”

“他們命名黑洞，因為這有關(guān)人類害怕被毀滅或吞噬，”他曾對采訪者說?！拔也慌拢依斫馑鼈?，在某種意義上，我感覺我是它們的主人?！?/span>