One of the most influential people in science is Stephen Hawking, for his lifelong attempts to grasp the universe. Hawking left a legacy not just by challenging the concepts of space and time, but as a standout personality in the science community. His best-known work, A Brief History of Time, set a Guinness World Record for remaining a Sunday Times bestseller for 4 years straight. Hawking jokingly called it the most unread bestseller of all time, since people rarely understood the concepts in the book.
At 21, Hawking was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a motor neuron disease that deteriorated his voluntary muscle control. When he was diagnosed, doctors gave him only 2 years to live. However, Hawking lived to the full age of 76 years old, long outliving the doctors’ diagnosis.
