stephen hawking phd thesis pdf

Properties of expanding universes

Repository uri, repository doi.

Some implications and consequences of the expansion of the universe are examined. In Chapter 1 it is shown that this expansion creates grave difficulties for the Hoyle-Narlikar theory of gravitation. Chapter 2 deals with perturbations of an expanding homogeneous and isotropic universe. The conclusion is reached that galaxies cannot be formed as a result of the growth of perturbations that were initially small. The propagation and absorption of gravitational radiation is also investigated in this approximation. In Chapter 3 gravitational radiation in an expanding universe is examined by a method of asymptotic expansions. The 'peeling off' behaviour and the asymptotic group are derived. Chapter 4 deals with the occurrence of singularities in cosmological models. It is shown that a singularity is inevitable provided that certain very general conditions are satisfied.

Description

This thesis has been made openly available with the kind permission of Professor Stephen Hawking.

Qualification

Awarding institution, collections.

We will keep fighting for all libraries - stand with us!

Internet Archive Audio

• This Just In
• Grateful Dead
• Old Time Radio
• 78 RPMs and Cylinder Recordings
• Audio Books & Poetry
• Computers, Technology and Science
• Music, Arts & Culture
• News & Public Affairs
• Spirituality & Religion
• Radio News Archive

• Flickr Commons
• Occupy Wall Street Flickr
• NASA Images
• Solar System Collection
• Ames Research Center

• All Software
• Old School Emulation
• MS-DOS Games
• Historical Software
• Classic PC Games
• Software Library
• Kodi Archive and Support File
• Vintage Software
• CD-ROM Software
• CD-ROM Software Library
• Software Sites
• Tucows Software Library
• Shareware CD-ROMs
• Software Capsules Compilation
• CD-ROM Images
• ZX Spectrum
• DOOM Level CD

• Smithsonian Libraries
• FEDLINK (US)
• Lincoln Collection
• American Libraries
• Canadian Libraries
• Universal Library
• Project Gutenberg
• Children's Library
• Biodiversity Heritage Library
• Books by Language
• Additional Collections

• Prelinger Archives
• Democracy Now!
• Occupy Wall Street
• TV NSA Clip Library
• Animation & Cartoons
• Arts & Music
• Computers & Technology
• Cultural & Academic Films
• Ephemeral Films
• Sports Videos
• Videogame Videos
• Youth Media

Search the history of over 866 billion web pages on the Internet.

Mobile Apps

• Wayback Machine (iOS)
• Wayback Machine (Android)

Browser Extensions

Archive-it subscription.

• Explore the Collections
• Build Collections

Save Page Now

Capture a web page as it appears now for use as a trusted citation in the future.

Please enter a valid web address

• Donate Donate icon An illustration of a heart shape

Properties of Expanding Universes

Bookreader item preview, share or embed this item, flag this item for.

• Graphic Violence
• Explicit Sexual Content
• Hate Speech
• Misinformation/Disinformation
• Marketing/Phishing/Advertising
• Misleading/Inaccurate/Missing Metadata

plus-circle Add Review comment Reviews

1,683 Views

4 Favorites

DOWNLOAD OPTIONS

For users with print-disabilities

IN COLLECTIONS

Uploaded by dvanduzer on October 24, 2017

SIMILAR ITEMS (based on metadata)

The best free cultural &

educational media on the web

• Online Courses
• Certificates
• Degrees & Mini-Degrees
• Audio Books

Stephen Hawking’s Ph.D. Thesis, “Properties of Expanding Universes,” Now Free to Read/Download Online

in Physics , Science | October 24th, 2017 8 Comments

Image by NASA, via Flickr Com­mons

Imag­ine being Stephen Hawking’s dis­ser­ta­tion advi­sor? Not that most of us can put our­selves in the shoes of emi­nent Cam­bridge physi­cist Den­nis Scia­ma … but imag­ine a stu­dent suc­ceed­ing so pro­found­ly, after hav­ing over­come such remark­able dif­fi­cul­ty, to become the cel­e­brat­ed Stephen Hawk­ing ? One would feel immense­ly proud, I’d guess, and maybe just a lit­tle intim­i­dat­ed. Some grad­u­ate-lev­el pro­fes­sors might even feel threat­ened by such a stu­dent. It’s doubt­ful, how­ev­er, that Sciama—who signed off on Hawking’s the­sis in 1966 and died in 1999—felt this way.

As F.R. Ellis and Roger Pen­rose write , when Hawk­ing announced a sig­nif­i­cant find­ing about black holes in 1974, Scia­ma “quick­ly rec­og­nized the impor­tance… hail­ing it as ini­ti­at­ing a new rev­o­lu­tion in our under­stand­ing.” Despite his por­tray­al by David Thewlis as “a kind of author­i­tar­i­an gate­keep­er” in the Hawk­ing biopic The The­o­ry of Every­thing , Scia­ma “was much more than that pic­ture sug­gests,” writes anoth­er of his high­ly accom­plished mentees, Adri­an Melott ; “he was a superb men­tor who brought out the best in his stu­dents.” Ellis and Pen­rose, them­selves esteemed sci­en­tists strong­ly influ­enced by Scia­ma, write of his “aston­ish­ing suc­ces­sion of research stu­dents,” three of whom became fel­lows of the Roy­al Soci­ety .

I men­tion these names because they are just a few of the many peo­ple who inspired, chal­lenged, and guid­ed Hawk­ing, much of whose fame rests on his best­selling pop­u­lar cos­mol­o­gy, A Brief His­to­ry of Time . While he may be talked of as a lone eccen­tric sin­gu­lar­i­ty whose mind oper­ates above our mor­tal plane, like every sci­en­tist, he devel­oped in a com­mu­ni­ty that includes many such minds. The obser­va­tion in no way dimin­ish­es Hawking’s accomplishments–it might, ide­al­ly, spur those of us with an inter­est in his work to look at how it devel­oped in con­ver­sa­tion and debate with oth­ers, like emi­nent Cam­bridge physi­cist Fred Hoyle .

We can begin to do that now by going back to Hawking’s grad­u­ate days and read­ing his doc­tor­al the­sis, which has been made avail­able for free down­load by the Cam­bridge Uni­ver­si­ty Library. “ Prop­er­ties of Expand­ing Uni­vers­es ” has proven so pop­u­lar that it crashed the library web site, with more than 60,000 views yes­ter­day. By con­trast, “oth­er pop­u­lar the­ses might have 100 views per month,” says Stu­art Roberts, deputy head of research com­mu­ni­ca­tions at Cam­bridge.

In a state­ment accom­pa­ny­ing the dissertation’s release , Hawk­ing mat­ter-of-fact­ly sit­u­ates him­self in a vast com­mu­ni­ty of “great” minds:

By mak­ing my PhD the­sis Open Access, I hope to inspire peo­ple around the world to look up at the stars and not down at their feet; to won­der about our place in the uni­verse and to try and make sense of the cos­mos. Any­one, any­where in the world should have free, unhin­dered access to not just my research, but to the research of every great and enquir­ing mind across the spec­trum of human under­stand­ing.

Should we have such open access, all of us could fol­low the debates across aca­d­e­m­ic projects, learn how the most sophis­ti­cat­ed views of the universe’s nature get for­mu­lat­ed and refined. How­ev­er, we’d prob­a­bly also find that few oth­er physi­cists express them­selves with as much clar­i­ty as Hawk­ing. Whether or not we under­stand his sci­en­tif­ic expla­na­tions, we can under­stand his prose, and his direct­ness of expres­sion has won him mil­lions of read­ers who may have nev­er have oth­er­wise read any the­o­ret­i­cal physics. See the first para­graph of Hawking’s intro­duc­tion below:

The idea that the uni­verse is expand­ing is of recent ori­gin. All the ear­ly cos­molo­gies were essen­tial­ly sta­tion­ary and even Ein­stein whose the­o­ry of rel­a­tiv­i­ty is the basis for almost all mod­ern devel­op­ments in cos­mol­o­gy, found it nat­ur­al to sug­gest a sta­t­ic mod­el of the uni­verse. How­ev­er there is a very grave dif­fi­cul­ty asso­ci­at­ed with a sta­t­ic mod­el such as Ein­stein’s which is sup­posed to have exist­ed for an infi­nite time. For, if the stars had been radi­at­ing ener­gy at their present rates for an infi­nite time, they would have need­ed an infi­nite sup­ply of ener­gy. Fur­ther, the flux of radi­a­tion now would be infi­nite. Alter­na­tive­ly, if they had only a lim­it­ed sup­ply of ener­gy, the whole uni­verse would by now have reached ther­mal equi­lib­ri­um which is cer­tain­ly not the case. This dif­fi­cul­ty was noticed by Old­ers who how­ev­er was not able to sug­gest any solu­tion. The dis­cov­ery of the reces­sion of the neb­u­lae by Hub­ble led to the aban­don­ment of sta­t­ic mod­els in favour of ones which were expand­ing.

Whether the remain­der of “ Prop­er­ties of Expand­ing Uni­vers­es ” is as read­able may be dif­fi­cult to deter­mine for a lit­tle while. As of the writ­ing of this post, at least, both the orig­i­nal link and a sec­ondary URL host­ing a pho­tographed ver­sion of the doc­u­ment have ground to a halt. (Update: Pages are serv­ing fair­ly well again, at least for now.) No doubt many of the vis­i­tors are physi­cists and grad stu­dents them­selves. But their num­bers may be dwarfed by laypeo­ple eager to see Hawking’s pecu­liar genius first emerge into the world, from a com­mu­ni­ty of sim­i­lar­ly bril­liant cos­mol­o­gists.

Relat­ed Con­tents:

R ead John Nash’s Super Short PhD The­sis with 26 Pages & 2 Cita­tions: The Beau­ty of Invent­ing a Field

Stephen Hawking’s Lec­tures on Black Holes Now Ful­ly Ani­mat­ed with Chalk­board Illus­tra­tions

Stephen Hawking’s New Lec­ture, “Do Black Holes Have No Hair?,” Ani­mat­ed with Chalk­board Illus­tra­tions

Read John Nash’s Super Short PhD The­sis with 26 Pages & 2 Cita­tions: The Beau­ty of Invent­ing a Field

The Big Ideas of Stephen Hawk­ing Explained with Sim­ple Ani­ma­tion

Josh Jones  is a writer and musi­cian based in Durham, NC. Fol­low him at  @jdmagness

by Josh Jones | Permalink | Comments (8) |

Related posts:

Comments (8), 8 comments so far.

There could not have been a sin­gu­lar­i­ty in the very begin­ning bc it would have been a sin­gle par­ti­cle which could not explode with­out hav­ing an influ­ence by anoth­er par­ti­cle. That sin­gu­lar­i­ty par­ti­cle would also have to have had an unlim­it­ed lifes­pan, up until its’ explosion.The Big Bang caused by two or more par­ti­cles col­lid­ing did not cre­ate space. Time then came into exis­tence as the par­ti­cles and sub­par­ti­cles moved away from each oth­er, hence, time is rel­a­tive to par­ti­cles in motion in space.

I need pdf copy of STEPHEN HAWKINGS the­sis… Thank you

Respect­ed Sir / Madam, If pos­si­ble, Pl. send me pdf ver­sion of STEPHEN HAWKINGS the­sis work.

Thank you for your time and cour­tesy.

With regards, V.Subburam

Down­load links:

12Mb https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/bitstream/handle/1810/251038/PR-PHD-05437_CUDL2017-reduced.pdf

32Mb https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/bitstream/handle/1810/251038/PR-PHD-05437.pdf

72 Mb https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/bitstream/handle/1810/251038/PR-PHD-05437.pdf

Yes time is between start­ing and end­ing. As per Theo­soph­i­cal lit­er­a­ture, One became two, and three. i am unable to agree with the first sen­tyence of your com­ment. One par­ti­cle became two, and 3 to 4, 4 to 6 . so a sin­gle par­ti­cle could explode hav­ing an influ­ence by anoth­er par­ti­cle ,

Jyotir­moy Das says: Novem­ber 11, 2017 at 1306 H Respect­ed Sir / Madam, If pos­si­ble, Pl. send me pdf ver­sion of STEPHEN HAWKINGS the­sis work.

With regards, Jyotir­moy Das

One par­ti­cle can­not split with­out being influ­enced to do so by anoth­er par­ti­cle. Explain to me how the only par­ti­cle in exis­tence can split with­out hav­ing been influ­enced to do so. A true sin­gu­lar­i­ty would be a lone par­ti­cle in the com­plete absence of any oth­er par­ti­cles.

can i have JOHN Hawkins research doc in PDF?

Add a comment

Leave a reply.

Name (required)

Email (required)

XHTML: You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

Click here to cancel reply.

• 1,700 Free Online Courses
• 200 Online Certificate Programs
• 100+ Online Degree & Mini-Degree Programs
• 1,150 Free Movies
• 1,000 Free Audio Books
• 150+ Best Podcasts
• 800 Free eBooks
• 200 Free Textbooks
• 300 Free Language Lessons
• 150 Free Business Courses
• Free K-12 Education
• Get Our Daily Email

Free Courses

• Art & Art History
• Classics/Ancient World
• Computer Science
• Data Science
• Engineering
• Environment
• Political Science
• Writing & Journalism
• All 1500 Free Courses
• 1000+ MOOCs & Certificate Courses

Receive our Daily Email

Free updates, get our daily email.

Get the best cultural and educational resources on the web curated for you in a daily email. We never spam. Unsubscribe at any time.

FOLLOW ON SOCIAL MEDIA

Free Movies

• 1150 Free Movies Online
• Free Film Noir
• Silent Films
• Documentaries
• Martial Arts/Kung Fu
• Free Hitchcock Films
• Free Charlie Chaplin
• Free John Wayne Movies
• Free Tarkovsky Films
• Free Dziga Vertov
• Free Oscar Winners
• Free Language Lessons
• All Languages

Free eBooks

• 700 Free eBooks
• Free Philosophy eBooks
• The Harvard Classics
• Philip K. Dick Stories
• Neil Gaiman Stories
• David Foster Wallace Stories & Essays
• Hemingway Stories
• Great Gatsby & Other Fitzgerald Novels
• HP Lovecraft
• Edgar Allan Poe
• Free Alice Munro Stories
• Jennifer Egan Stories
• George Saunders Stories
• Hunter S. Thompson Essays
• Joan Didion Essays
• Gabriel Garcia Marquez Stories
• David Sedaris Stories
• Stephen King
• Golden Age Comics
• Free Books by UC Press
• Life Changing Books

Free Audio Books

• 700 Free Audio Books
• Free Audio Books: Fiction
• Free Audio Books: Poetry
• Free Audio Books: Non-Fiction

Free Textbooks

• Free Physics Textbooks
• Free Computer Science Textbooks
• Free Math Textbooks

K-12 Resources

• Free Video Lessons
• Web Resources by Subject
• Quality YouTube Channels
• Teacher Resources
• All Free Kids Resources

Free Art & Images

• All Art Images & Books
• The Rijksmuseum
• Smithsonian
• The Guggenheim
• The National Gallery
• The Whitney
• LA County Museum
• Stanford University
• British Library
• Google Art Project
• French Revolution
• Getty Images
• Guggenheim Art Books
• Met Art Books
• Getty Art Books
• New York Public Library Maps
• Museum of New Zealand
• Smarthistory
• Coloring Books
• All Bach Organ Works
• All of Bach
• 80,000 Classical Music Scores
• Free Classical Music
• Live Classical Music
• 9,000 Grateful Dead Concerts
• Alan Lomax Blues & Folk Archive

Writing Tips

• William Zinsser
• Kurt Vonnegut
• Toni Morrison
• Margaret Atwood
• David Ogilvy
• Billy Wilder
• All posts by date

Personal Finance

• Open Personal Finance
• Amazon Kindle
• Architecture
• Artificial Intelligence
• Beat & Tweets
• Comics/Cartoons
• Current Affairs
• English Language
• Entrepreneurship
• Food & Drink
• Graduation Speech
• How to Learn for Free
• Internet Archive
• Language Lessons
• Most Popular
• Neuroscience
• Photography
• Pretty Much Pop
• Productivity
• UC Berkeley
• Uncategorized
• Video - Arts & Culture
• Video - Politics/Society
• Video - Science
• Video Games

Great Lectures

• Michel Foucault
• Sun Ra at UC Berkeley
• Richard Feynman
• Joseph Campbell
• Jorge Luis Borges
• Leonard Bernstein
• Richard Dawkins
• Buckminster Fuller
• Walter Kaufmann on Existentialism
• Jacques Lacan
• Roland Barthes
• Nobel Lectures by Writers
• Bertrand Russell
• Oxford Philosophy Lectures

Receive our newsletter!

Open Culture scours the web for the best educational media. We find the free courses and audio books you need, the language lessons & educational videos you want, and plenty of enlightenment in between.

Great Recordings

• T.S. Eliot Reads Waste Land
• Sylvia Plath - Ariel
• Joyce Reads Ulysses
• Joyce - Finnegans Wake
• Patti Smith Reads Virginia Woolf
• Albert Einstein
• Charles Bukowski
• Bill Murray
• Fitzgerald Reads Shakespeare
• William Faulkner
• Flannery O'Connor
• Tolkien - The Hobbit
• Allen Ginsberg - Howl
• Dylan Thomas
• Anne Sexton
• John Cheever
• David Foster Wallace

Book Lists By

• Neil deGrasse Tyson
• Ernest Hemingway
• F. Scott Fitzgerald
• Allen Ginsberg
• Patti Smith
• Henry Miller
• Christopher Hitchens
• Joseph Brodsky
• Donald Barthelme
• David Bowie
• Samuel Beckett
• Art Garfunkel
• Marilyn Monroe
• Picks by Female Creatives
• Zadie Smith & Gary Shteyngart
• Lynda Barry

Favorite Movies

• Kurosawa's 100
• David Lynch
• Werner Herzog
• Woody Allen
• Wes Anderson
• Luis Buñuel
• Roger Ebert
• Susan Sontag
• Scorsese Foreign Films
• Philosophy Films
• February 2024
• January 2024
• December 2023
• November 2023
• October 2023
• September 2023
• August 2023
• February 2023
• January 2023
• December 2022
• November 2022
• October 2022
• September 2022
• August 2022
• February 2022
• January 2022
• December 2021
• November 2021
• October 2021
• September 2021
• August 2021
• February 2021
• January 2021
• December 2020
• November 2020
• October 2020
• September 2020
• August 2020
• February 2020
• January 2020
• December 2019
• November 2019
• October 2019
• September 2019
• August 2019
• February 2019
• January 2019
• December 2018
• November 2018
• October 2018
• September 2018
• August 2018
• February 2018
• January 2018
• December 2017
• November 2017
• October 2017
• September 2017
• August 2017
• February 2017
• January 2017
• December 2016
• November 2016
• October 2016
• September 2016
• August 2016
• February 2016
• January 2016
• December 2015
• November 2015
• October 2015
• September 2015
• August 2015
• February 2015
• January 2015
• December 2014
• November 2014
• October 2014
• September 2014
• August 2014
• February 2014
• January 2014
• December 2013
• November 2013
• October 2013
• September 2013
• August 2013
• February 2013
• January 2013
• December 2012
• November 2012
• October 2012
• September 2012
• August 2012
• February 2012
• January 2012
• December 2011
• November 2011
• October 2011
• September 2011
• August 2011
• February 2011
• January 2011
• December 2010
• November 2010
• October 2010
• September 2010
• August 2010
• February 2010
• January 2010
• December 2009
• November 2009
• October 2009
• September 2009
• August 2009
• February 2009
• January 2009
• December 2008
• November 2008
• October 2008
• September 2008
• August 2008
• February 2008
• January 2008
• December 2007
• November 2007
• October 2007
• September 2007
• August 2007
• February 2007
• January 2007
• December 2006
• November 2006
• October 2006
• September 2006

©2006-2024 Open Culture, LLC. All rights reserved.

• Advertise with Us
• Copyright Policy
• Privacy Policy
• Terms of Use

Treasures of the Library : Properties of expanding universes / Stephen Hawking

Hawking, stephen, 1942-, treasures of the library.

<p style='text-align: justify;'>Some implications and consequences of the expansion of the universe are examined. In Chapter 1 it is shown that this expansion creates grave difficulties for the Hoyle-Narlikar theory of gravitation. Chapter 2 deals with perturbations of an expanding homogeneous and isotropic universe. The conclusion is reached that galaxies cannot be formed as a result of the growth of perturbations that were initially small. The propagation and absorption of gravitational radiation is also investigated in this approximation. In Chapter 3 gravitational radiation in an expanding universe is examined by a method of asymptotic expansions. The 'peeling off' behaviour and the asymptotic group are derived. Chapter 4 deals with the occurrence of singularities in cosmological models. It is shown that a singularity is inevitable provided that certain very general conditions are satisfied.</p>

• Transcription
• Translation
• Item metadata

Want to know more?

Under the 'More' menu you can find metadata about the item , and information about sharing this image .

• Item Metadata

The images contained in the pdf download have the following copyright:

This will create a PDF with thumbnail images for all pages, and may take some time for large documents.

The images contained in this document have the following copyright:

This image has the following copyright:

This metadata has the following copyright:

Do you want to download metadata for this document?

Stephen Hawking's Cambridge PhD thesis was published online 6 months before he died so anyone can read it

• The University of Cambridge posted Stephen Hawking's PhD thesis online in October.
• It put the document that launched his scientific career in front of a vastly expanded audience.
• Six months later, in March 2018, Hawking died at the age of 76.
• The PhD thesis was submitted when Hawking was 24 years old.
• It examines details of his theory of an expanding universe.
• The document includes hand-written equations and Hawking's signature.

The original version of Stephen Hawking's PhD thesis was made freely available online for the first time six months before he died.

The 119-page document was submitted by Hawking, then a 24-year-old graduate student at the University of Cambridge.

He gave permission for the online publication in October, putting the document in front of a vastly expanded audience.

Its title is "Properties of an Expanding Universe," and in the abstract Hawking promises to examine "some implications and consequences of the expansion of the universe." By page three he is picking holes in Einstein.

An official stamp from Cambridge University dates the document to February 1, 1966, the year Hawking was awarded his doctorate. It is now hosted here, on Cambridge's Apollo catalogue of academic work .

At the time, Hawking was beginning to suffer from the motor neurone disease which would eventually leave him unable to move almost any part of his body.

However, he was at that point still able to write. He signed the thesis several times, and included a hand-written declaration that the document was his own, original work.

Related stories

Several pages also feature complicated mathematical equations which were written out by hand.

The document helped launched Hawking's career, and formed the bedrock of his reputation as one of the world's most famous scientists.

Shortly after his thesis was accepted, Hawking became a fellow of Gonville and Caius College at the University of Cambridge. He remained a professor there until his death.

Like all PhD theses, Hawking's work has technically been available ever since it was accepted by Cambridge, so that other scholars could read and cite his work.

However, people wanting to see it would have had to go to Cambridge, or pay the university to receive a copy.

Cambridge was able to make the document publicly available once Hawking gave his personal permission to change the document's status to "Open Access" as part of a wider push by the university to broaden the reach of its academic work.

In a statement accompanying the release, Hawking said he hopes the document will inspire more people to pursue science. He said:

"By making my PhD thesis Open Access, I hope to inspire people around the world to look up at the stars and not down at their feet; to wonder about our place in the universe and to try and make sense of the cosmos. Anyone, anywhere in the world should have free, unhindered access to not just my research, but to the research of every great and enquiring mind across the spectrum of human understanding.

"Each generation stands on the shoulders of those who have gone before them, just as I did as a young PhD student in Cambridge, inspired by the work of Isaac Newton, James Clerk Maxwell, and Albert Einstein. It’s wonderful to hear how many people have already shown an interest in downloading my thesis – hopefully they won’t be disappointed now that they finally have access to it."

Editor's note: This article was updated on March 14, 2018, to include details of Hawking's death.

Watch: How this Instagrammer turns piles of books into works of art

• Main content

UK Edition Change

• UK Politics
• News Videos
• Paris 2024 Olympics
• Rugby Union
• Sport Videos
• John Rentoul
• Mary Dejevsky
• Andrew Grice
• Sean O’Grady
• Photography
• Theatre & Dance
• Culture Videos
• Fitness & Wellbeing
• Food & Drink
• Health & Families
• Royal Family
• Electric Vehicles
• Car Insurance Deals
• Lifestyle Videos
• UK Hotel Reviews
• News & Advice
• Simon Calder
• Australia & New Zealand
• South America
• C. America & Caribbean
• Middle East
• Politics Explained
• News Analysis
• Today’s Edition
• Home & Garden
• Broadband deals
• Fashion & Beauty
• Travel & Outdoors
• Sports & Fitness
• Sustainable Living
• Climate Videos
• Solar Panels
• Behind The Headlines
• On The Ground
• Decomplicated
• You Ask The Questions
• Binge Watch
• Travel Smart
• Watch on your TV
• Crosswords & Puzzles
• Most Commented
• Newsletters
• Ask Me Anything
• Virtual Events
• Betting Sites
• Online Casinos
• Wine Offers

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in Please refresh your browser to be logged in

Stephen Hawking's PhD thesis becomes freely available online, letting anyone see the essay that started it all

Cambridge university hopes that it can encourage other people to upload and make available their work, article bookmarked.

Find your bookmarks in your Independent Premium section, under my profile

Sign up to our free weekly IndyTech newsletter delivered straight to your inbox

Sign up to our free indytech newsletter, thanks for signing up to the indytech email.

You can finally take a peek into the mind of one of the greatest students in the world: Stephen Hawking, and his PhD thesis.

The University of Cambridge has long looked after the doctorate presented by the young Professor Hawking, and the work that would go on to make him famous.

Now, anyone anywhere can download and look at a digitised version of the thesis – complete with Mr Hawking's own hand-written signature. But there's no guarantee that all of them will actually understand it: the thesis' title is 'Properties of expanding universes' and it continues in a similarly mind-blowing but difficult vein throughout.

Nasa's most stunning pictures of space

At the time of writing the paper, Professor Hawking was just a 24-year-old postgraduate student in Cambridge. But it began a process that would see him become the most famous scientist in the world – and the beginnings of much of that work is contained within the paper.

• Stephen Hawking has hit back at Jeremy Hunt once again over NHS

The university said the thesis is by far the most popular in its system, with even the internal catalogue page receiving hundreds of views each month. Now it hopes to let those people and more see it easily, by making it readily available online.

Professor Hawking and his university said they hoped that putting the thesis online would not simply encourage people to read it and think about the ideas it contains, but also to share their own research too.

“By making my PhD thesis Open Access, I hope to inspire people around the world to look up at the stars and not down at their feet; to wonder about our place in the universe and to try and make sense of the cosmos," said Professor Hawking. "Anyone, anywhere in the world should have free, unhindered access to not just my research, but to the research of every great and enquiring mind across the spectrum of human understanding.

“Each generation stands on the shoulders of those who have gone before them, just as I did as a young PhD student in Cambridge, inspired by the work of Isaac Newton, James Clerk Maxwell and Albert Einstein. It’s wonderful to hear how many people have already shown an interest in downloading my thesis – hopefully they won’t be disappointed now that they finally have access to it!”

The move came to celebrate Open Access Week, and Arthur Smith, deputy head of scholarly communication at Cambridge, said that he hoped the move would encourage other graduates to put their theses online.

“Open Access enables research. By eliminating the barriers between people and knowledge we can realise new breakthroughs in all areas of science, medicine and technology," he said. "It is especially important for disseminating the knowledge acquired during doctoral research studies. PhD theses contain a vast trove of untapped and unique information just waiting to be used, but which is often locked away from view and scrutiny.

“From October 2017 onwards, all PhD students graduating from the University of Cambridge will be required to deposit an electronic copy of their doctoral work for future preservation. And like Professor Hawking, we hope that many students will also take the opportunity to freely distribute their work online by making their thesis Open Access. We would also invite former University alumni to consider making their theses Open Access, too.”

The thesis can be found on Cambridge's Apollo system , where many other open access works are also stored.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Subscribe to Independent Premium to bookmark this article

Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Premium subscription today.

New to The Independent?

Or if you would prefer:

Want an ad-free experience?

Hi {{indy.fullName}}

• My Independent Premium
• Account details
• Help centre

• Summer Game Fest 2024
• Amazon Prime Day is coming in July
• Apple WWDC 2024
• Samsung Galaxy Watch AI features
• 13-inch MacBook Air M2 deal

Stephen Hawking makes his doctoral thesis available online

He's taking advantage of modern technology to spark an interest in space..

Ever wondered how Stephen Hawking saw the universe as a doctoral candidate, when his theories about black holes were just coming into fruition? You don't have to hear about it second-hand -- you can now go straight to the source. The legendary cosmologist has published his 1966 doctoral thesis online for anyone to read, making it available to the public for the first time. Hawking is posting his work in hopes that it'll spark interests in both space itself and sharing research. "I hope to inspire people around the world to look up at the stars and not down at their feet," he said.

Needless to say, it's not light reading. Hawking used the expansion of the universe to challenge an existing gravitational theory (there's no way galaxies could form as a result of early perturbations, he argued) and provide a model of gravitational radiation and expansion that shows space-time singularities are "inevitable."

Whether or not you take a look, there was plenty of pent-up demand. Cambridge University said the paper was the "most-requested" work for its open repository, receiving "hundreds" of requests. It'll also help open the floodgates. All Cambridge graduates will have to offer digital copies of their theses from now on, and they're being encouraged to make them public. Hawking's move might give them the confidence boost they need -- they'll know there's nothing to fear by disclosing their work.

Latest Stories

Ai workers demand stronger whistleblower protections in open letter.

A group of current and former employees from leading AI companies like OpenAI, Google DeepMind and Anthropic have signed an open letter asking for greater transparency and protection from retaliation for those who speak out about the potential concerns of AI.

Malicious code has allegedly compromised TikTok accounts belonging to CNN and Paris Hilton

A new TikTok hack is taking over accounts from Paris Hilton to CNN. It’s spread via direct messages, so watch out.

How to watch Summer Games Done Quick 2024

Summer Games Done Quick is back for more charity speed runs of classic and contemporary games. The 2024 edition of the marathon will stream from Minneapolis from June 30 to July 6 as turbo-gamers take on Alan Wake 2, Halo 3 and the Super Mario RPG Remake.

Dead by Daylight maker Behaviour announces its second round of layoffs this year

Layoffs are hitting the game industry once again, with Dead by Daylight maker Behaviour Interactive letting go as many as 95 workers.

Summer Game Fest 2024: What to expect and how to watch games revealed live

It's Summer Game Fest (aka Not-E3) time, folks! Here's your guide to all of this week's main showcases and how to watch them.

Apple WWDC 2024: What we expect including iOS 18 updates, AI and more

It's almost time to learn about new features coming to Apple devices at WWDC. Here's what we expect the company to reveal at the event.

Max just raised subscription prices again

Max is raising subscription prices again. The monthly ad-free plan has risen to $17, with every other plan also experiencing increases.

The second-gen Apple Pencil is back on sale for $79

The second-gen Apple Pencil is back on sale for $79. It’s a great accessory for those who use older iPad Pro and iPad Air tablets.

The Acolyte is Star Wars at its best

The Acolyte demonstrates what's possible when Star Wars embraces new characters and genres, while abandoning the Dark Side of nostalgia.

WWDC 2024: How to Watch Apple's keynote on June 10

You can watch Apple’s WWDC keynote event in a number of ways, including via the company’s YouTube page. Apple’s likely to reveal iOS18, among other software updates.

You might need to upgrade your Apple TV box to keep watching Netflix

Folks who are holding onto a second- or third-gen Apple TV will soon need to upgrade their device if they want to keep streaming Netflix through their set-top box.

The best everyday carry gear for dads

Here are the best everyday carry items for dads, as chosen by Engadget editors.

TheraGun massagers are up to 17 percent off right now

TheraGun's Mini and Relief massagers are discounted on Amazon.

The third-gen Apple TV 4K drops to a record low of $90

The third-gen Apple TV 4K is our favorite premium streaming device, and it has dropped to its lowest price to date.

Skydance's Behemoth brings giant climbable monster fights to VR

Behemoth is an action-adventure game that draws on the combat and physics of The Walking Dead VR games but with a bigger focus on fighting. Also: scaling a giant and killing it dead.

Meta Quest software update adds a better way to watch Netflix and a travel mode

Meta is rolling out a system update to Quest headsets that bring a better option to watch Netflix. There’s also a new travel mode, which was teased last month.

Samsung’s Odyssey G8 might be the best 32-inch gaming monitor of the year

After getting announced back at CES 2024, we finally had a chance to check out two of Samsung's best new gaming monitors: the Odyseey G8 and G6.

Meta Connect 2024 will take place on September 25 and 26

Meta Connect 2024 will take place on September 25 and 26 and feature news around the latest mixed reality technology.

The 2024 Moto Edge combines a 6.6-inch OLED screen with mid-range pricing

Motorola unveiled the 2024 Moto Edge on Tuesday. The $550 mid-range phone is slightly more expensive than the Pixel 8a but has different strengths and weaknesses. It will be available starting on June 20.

EU accuses Micrsoft of secretly collecting children's data

Noyb accused Microsoft of lacking transparency or protections around collecting children's data in schools.

Latest Stories

• more Events Visual Stories IPL 2024

Stephen Hawking's Famous PhD On Expanding Universe Is Available For Anyone To Read For Free

Stephen Hawking is known worldwide as both a genius and a brilliant mind devoted to progressing everything from the fields of astrophysics to artificial intelligence. And now, you can finally peek into the mind that has helped unravel the mysteries of the universe for decades.

Hawking’s PHD, the one that lit the spark that eventually made him a world renowned scientist has finally gone online for the first time ever. Now, anyone on the world can look it up, titled ‘Properties of the expanding universe’, and see the digitized version of the thesis that made it all happen.

Written in 1966, when Hawking himself was a mere 24-year-old postgraduate student at Cambridge, it’s one of the most famous scientific works of modern times. According to the University, it’s by far the most popular bit of writing in Apollo (their archival system), with just the internal catalogue page receiving hundreds of views each month. 

Now, in celebration of Open Access Week 2017, Cambridge has announced that Hawking has provided authorization for the thesis to be posted online and freely accessible to anyone looking to read it. All you have to do is visit the link here and download the PDF , complete with Hawking’s handwritten notes.

Both Hawking and the University say that, by posting the thesis online, they hope to encourage people to read and ponder the material, as well as possibly share their own research. “By making my PhD thesis Open Access, I hope to inspire people around the world to look up at the stars and not down at their feet; to wonder about our place in the universe and to try and make sense of the cosmos,” Hawking said.

Visual Stories

10 Must-See Bollywood Political Thrillers You Can't Miss

7 Health Benefits Of Ghee That Make It A Superfood

Only A True Genius Can Spot The Shoe That Doesn't Belong To A Pair

From Mirzapur 3 To Gullak 4: OTT Releases To Watch In June 2024

Fees Of International Artists For Performing At Ambani’s Weddings

Accept the updated Privacy & Cookie Policy

Academia.edu no longer supports Internet Explorer.

To browse Academia.edu and the wider internet faster and more securely, please take a few seconds to  upgrade your browser .

Enter the email address you signed up with and we'll email you a reset link.

• We're Hiring!
• Help Center

Stephen Hawking: Black Holes and other Contributions from one of the Greatest Scientists of Our Time

Stephen Hawking entered the hall of the greatest scientists of all time, alongside names like Galileo, Newton and Einstein. He was a warrior fighting a degenerative disease that deprived him of movement. Hawking made important contributions to understanding the functioning of the Universe by exploring issues such as Black Holes, Wormholes, Space and Time, and the Big Bang. The understanding of the Thermodynamics of the Black Holes caused us to approach the Relativity of Quantum Mechanics, leaving the "Theory of Everything" closer to our reality. Stephen William Hawking was born exactly on the 300th anniversary of Galileo's death and died at the age of 76 on Albert Einstein´s birthday on Pi Day on March 14, 2018.

Related Papers

Manjunath R

Stephen Hawking was known for his groundbreaking work with black holes and relativity, and was the author of several popular science books including 'A Brief History of Time.' He was a Theoretical physicist, professor and author who performed groundbreaking work in physics and cosmology, and whose books helped to make science accessible to everyone. At age 21, while studying cosmology at the University of Cambridge, he was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and because of that he could not move or talk very well. The illness worsened over the years and he was almost completely paralyzed. He used a wheelchair to move, and an Intel computer to talk. He died on 14 March 2018.

Gabriela Litre

On March 14, 2018, after 76 years of living a purpose driven life, Stephen Hawking left Earth. He wanted to gain a total comprehension of the Universe by questioning his own existence and special characteristics. One of his recommendations was that one should always look up at the stars, not down at his own feet. “Try to make sense of what you see and wonder about what makes the universe exist”, he said. “Be curious.”

BIOGRAPHY OF PHYSICS GENIUS

Syeda Bukhari

COLLEGE LIBRARIES

Amitkumar Das

The study has been confined to the contributions and the citations received by the famous British physicist and cosmologist Stephen William Hawking reported in the Google scholar database. It investigates the total number of contributions and the most productive years of the great scientist along with the authorship pattern of the contributions made by him and identifying the publishers, who published maximum number of Hawking's works. The study also aims to identify the core journals producing most of his works and finds Physical Review D followed by Physical letters B publishing most of his works, and reveals maximum number of works are contributed in the year 1996; American Physical Society published maximum works; Single authored papers are predominant;Most of Hawking's works are published in English language. Hawking's books received maximum number of citations followed by research articles. MLodinow is found to be the most prolific author working in collaboration with Hawking followed by Penrose.The priority areas in the subject can be identified from the study and the study helps in re-looking into the papers which find utmost importance by studying their citations.

Clinical Medicine and Therapeutics

Chin-lung Kuo

Martina Salakova

Cambridge Review

George Burnett-Stuart

An explanation of what Hawking's formula for the entropy of a black holes is all about. Article published in the Cambridge Review 37 years ago. I have spent much time since then working out the ideas expressed in this article.

American Journal of Physics

Swarnav Majumder

Abhas Mitra

In 1999, Physics World surveyed approximately 130 physicists and asked them to name the five researchers who made the most important contributions to the field. Albert Einstein came first with 119 votes. Richard Feynman came seventh with 23 votes. Paul Dirac came eighth with 22 votes. Hawking received one vote. Throughout his career, he and his publishers have demonstrated a keen understanding of the dynamics of publicity. Other physicists have been, at times, ambivalent about his reputation, because of what some of them see as his having a public profile that is out of proportion to his scientific merit.

RELATED PAPERS

Shashwat Parida

Demphsey Tapia

Journal of Dental Education

The Canadian Mineralogist

Jean-Luc Lescuyer

Sade Magwood

Journal of English Language Teaching and Linguistics

Dwi Astuti Wahyu Nurhayati

Bulletin of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology

Gerardo Gold

Simone Cruz Nobre

Prosiding Seminar Nasional Masyarakat Biodiversitas Indonesia

Prima Novia

Irmalita Tahir

Estudios Geográficos

José Alonso-santos

Sarini Yusuf

Clinical Cardiology

Athanasios Charalampopoulos

Physics Letters B

yousef bisabr

哪里购买英国牛津大学毕业证 oxon学位证书文凭证书英文Offer原版一模一样

Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology

Mark Huxham

Radiation Physics and Chemistry

Julie Jessop

hüseyin Kafadar

Ugo D'Ambrosio

Asian-australasian Journal of Animal Sciences

Adel El-Gohary

Fabio Dallanora

Uxío Labarta

•   We're Hiring!
•   Help Center
• Find new research papers in:
• Health Sciences
• Earth Sciences
• Cognitive Science
• Mathematics
• Computer Science
• Academia ©2024

Stephen Hawking’s 1966 Thesis Has Crashed Cambridge's Website

Without even trying, Stephen Hawking broke the internet.

Without even trying, Stephen Hawking did what Kim Kardashian tried — unsuccessfully — to do: He broke the internet. In honor of Open Access Week, Cambridge University, Hawking’s alma mater, made his Ph.D. thesis, “ Properties of Expanding Universes ,” available for free on its website. Good luck accessing it, though. Ever since the document went live and media outlets began covering it, browser requests have been timing out.

“Professor Hawking is a phenomenon in his own right, but I don’t think they had expected quite so much interest,” a university spokesperson tells Inverse . “We’ve been overwhelmed in various ways by it.” According to Cambridge sources, around 428,000 people have viewed page, and 60,000 downloaded the thesis. There have been about 300,000 views for the digital library version.

• View Stephen Hawking’s 1966 Thesis in a PDF

The thesis is not an unusually large file size (32 megabytes), but these numbers are surely beyond the kind of traffic that the Cambridge Library website — which serves a student body of just around 20,000 — typically experiences.

“It’s been an awful lot of people actually attempting to have a look at this,” a university spokesperson tells Inverse . Fortunately, the university has taken measures to make it accessible to the public, and as of this article’s publication, the document has successfully loaded, if a bit slowly. Since 5 a.m., there’s been a redirect put in place to improve performance.

“It’s wonderful to hear how many people have already shown an interest in downloading my thesis — hopefully they won’t be disappointed now that they finally have access to it!” Hawking wrote in a statement before the site issues began. “By making my Ph.D. thesis Open Access, I hope to inspire people around the world to look up at the stars and not down at their feet; to wonder about our place in the universe and to try and make sense of the cosmos. Anyone, anywhere in the world should have free, unhindered access to not just my research, but to the research of every great and inquiring mind across the spectrum of human understanding,” he said. Hawking’s choice to make his thesis open access comes at a moment when more and more scientists are rebelling against for-profit publishers and pushing for open access to academic research. And the overwhelming demand for his research shows that people want open access.

Hawking’s thesis, which he wrote in 1966, discusses the “implications and consequences of the expansion of the universe .” It represents the beginning of his seminal work on astrophysics and includes the conclusion that galaxies could not form through the growth of small perturbations.

The Cambridge library’s single most requested item, Hawking’s 134-page manuscript used to cost people 65 pounds (about $85) to access, reported the BBC .

If you liked this article, check out this video of Stephen Hawking’s chilling prediction for the future of humanity.

• Internet Culture
• Space Science

• News Releases

Stephen Hawking's Ph.D. thesis goes online for the first time

University of Cambridge

image: This is the title page from Hawking's 1966 PhD thesis at the University of Cambridge. view more 

Credit: University of Cambridge

The 1966 doctoral thesis by the world's most recognisable scientist is the most requested item in Apollo with the catalogue record alone attracting hundreds of views per month. In just the past few months, the University has received hundreds of requests from readers wishing to download Professor Hawking's thesis in full.

To celebrate Open Access Week 2017, Cambridge University Library's Office of Scholarly Communication has today announced Professor Hawking's permission to make his thesis freely available and Open Access in Apollo . By making his PhD thesis Open Access, anyone can now freely download and read this historic and compelling research by the then little-known 24-year-old Cambridge postgraduate.

Professor Hawking said: "By making my PhD thesis Open Access, I hope to inspire people around the world to look up at the stars and not down at their feet; to wonder about our place in the universe and to try and make sense of the cosmos. Anyone, anywhere in the world should have free, unhindered access to not just my research, but to the research of every great and enquiring mind across the spectrum of human understanding.

"Each generation stands on the shoulders of those who have gone before them, just as I did as a young PhD student in Cambridge, inspired by the work of Isaac Newton, James Clerk Maxwell and Albert Einstein. It's wonderful to hear how many people have already shown an interest in downloading my thesis - hopefully they won't be disappointed now that they finally have access to it!"

Dr Arthur Smith, Deputy Head of Scholarly Communication, said: "Open Access enables research. By eliminating the barriers between people and knowledge we can realise new breakthroughs in all areas of science, medicine and technology. It is especially important for disseminating the knowledge acquired during doctoral research studies. PhD theses contain a vast trove of untapped and unique information just waiting to be used, but which is often locked away from view and scrutiny.

"From October 2017 onwards, all PhD students graduating from the University of Cambridge will be required to deposit an electronic copy of their doctoral work for future preservation. And like Professor Hawking, we hope that many students will also take the opportunity to freely distribute their work online by making their thesis Open Access. We would also invite former University alumni to consider making their theses Open Access, too."

While the University is committed to archiving all theses it is often a struggle gaining permission to open up historic theses. With the online publication of Professor Hawking's thesis, Cambridge now hopes to encourage its former academics - which includes 98 Nobel Affiliates - to make their work freely available to all.

To make more of the University's theses Open Access in Apollo , the Office of Scholarly Communication and Cambridge University Library will digitise the theses of any alumni who wish to make their dissertation Open Access. Interested alumni should contact [email protected]

At a recent event to celebrate the 1,000th research dataset in Apollo , Dr Jessica Gardner, Director of Library Services, said: "Cambridge University Library has a 600-year-old history we are very proud of. It is home to the physical papers of such greats as Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin. Their research data was on paper and we have preserved that with great care and share it openly on line through our digital library.

"But our responsibility now is today's researcher and today's scientists and people working across all disciplines across our great university. Our preservation stewardship of that research data from the digital humanities across the biomedical and that is a core part of what we now do."

Apollo is home to over 200,000 digital objects including 15,000 research articles, 10,000 images, 2,400 theses and 1,000 datasets. The items made available in Apollo have been accessed from nearly every country in the world and in 2017 have collectively received over one million downloads.

Professor Hawking's 1966 doctoral thesis 'Properties of expanding universes' is available in Apollo at https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.11283 or in high resolution on Cambridge Digital Library at https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-PHD-05437/1

For further information about Open Access Week, visit: http://www.openaccessweek.org

10.17863/CAM.11283

Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.

Additional Multimedia

Original Source