Cosmic superhero Stephen Hawking never ceases to amaze his admirers. At the age of 72 he is the world’s most celebrated scientist and the ultimate symbol of triumph over adversity, as he celebrates five decades of intellectual achievement while livingwith motor neurone disease, which kills most patients within two or three years. “宇宙之王”斯蒂芬•霍金(Stephen Hawking)从未停止让他的崇拜者惊叹。
72岁高龄的他不仅是在世最著名的科学家，而且是战胜逆境的终极象征。
50年来，他在患有运动神经元疾病(MND)情况下取得了非凡学术成就，而这种疾病的患者大多在两、三年内死亡。
This week Professor Hawking enjoyed the limelight at the London premiere of the latest film about his life, The Theory of Everything, starring Eddie Redmayne. Last week he showed off a new communications system designed by Intel, which enables him to write and speak more efficiently — in his famous American android voice —by registering tiny movements of his cheek muscles.最近，霍金教授在《万物理论》(The Theory of Everything)伦敦首映式上成为公众瞩目的中心，这是最新一部刻画霍金生平的电影，由埃迪•雷德梅尼(Eddie Redmayne)主演。
更早些时候，他展示了由英特尔(Intel)设计的新通讯系统，通过捕捉他脸颊肌肉的微小抽动，这一系统使他能够更高效地写作和讲话——用他那著名的美国机器人的声音。
At the same time Prof Hawking stirred up controversywith his views on artificial intelligence, which “could be a real danger in the not too distant future”, he told the Financial Times by email. “The risk is that computers develop intelligence and take over. Humans, who are limited by slow biological evolution, couldn’t compete and would be superseded.”同时，霍金对人工智能的看法激起了争议。
他在发给英国《金融时报》的电子邮件中说，人工智能“可能在不太遥远的将来给人类带来真正的危险”。
“风险在于电脑开发并掌控智能。
人类受到缓慢生物进化的限制，可能无法与之竞争，并被取代。
”Lord Rees, astronomer royal and fellow cosmologist, first met Prof Hawking in 1964 when both were graduate students at Cambridge university. “He was already unsteady on his feet and spoke with great difficulty,” recalls Lord Rees. “I learnt that he might not live long enough even to finish his PhD.英国皇家天文学家、宇宙学家里斯勋爵(Lord Rees)第一次见到霍金是在1964年，那时两人都是剑桥大学的研究生。
“他已经无法站稳，而且说话也非常困难，”里斯勋爵回忆说。
“我意识到他可能活不了多长时间，甚至可能无法完成他的博士学位。
”“Astronomers are used to large numbers,” he adds. “But few numbers could be as large as the odds I’d have given, back in 1964 when Stephen received his‘death sentence’, against ever celebrating this uniquely inspiring crescendo of achievement sustained now for more than 50 years.”他说：“霍金早在1964年就接到了‘死亡判决书’，而他还可以庆祝这一至今逾50年、不断发挥独特的鼓舞人心作用的辉煌成就，放在当年我会认为出现这一结果的几率无比之小。
”Prof Hawking’s scientific reputation rests on his work on the relationship between gravity, space and time. “He has done as much to advance our understanding of gravity as anyone since Einstein,” says Lord Rees.霍金在科学领域的声誉建立在他对重力、空间和时间关系的研究上。
“他是继爱因斯坦之后，在加深我们对重力的理解方面贡献最大的人，”里斯勋爵说。
His most celebrated research concerns black holes, concentrations of matter so dense even light cannot escape their gravitational pull. Prof Hawking showed black holes are not just a bizarre theoretical construct but also play an important role inthe development of the universe. His eureka moment came in the early 1970s, when he realised that black holes would not be completely black but would emit what became known as “Hawking radiation”, a key concept in mathemat ical physics.他最著名的研究成果与黑洞有关。
黑洞是超高密度的天体，连光都逃不过他们的引力。
霍金告诉人们，黑洞不仅是一种奇怪的理论建构，而且在宇宙的进化中发挥着重要作用。
他的“尤里卡时刻”在上世纪70年代初降临，当时他认识到黑洞并不完全是黑的，而是会发射出被称做“霍金辐射“的能量，这个词后来也成为数学物理领域的一个重要概念。
Although his subsequent work has not had such a strong scientific impact, he has continued to publish research papers on quantum cosmology, tackling questionssuch as what happened before the birth of our universe. His later output is doubly remarkable in a mathematical subject where most researchers peak at an early age. 虽然霍金之后的研究没再产生那么大的科学影响，但他不断地发表关于量子宇宙学的研究论文，力图解答诸如宇宙诞生前发生了什么之类的问题。
他后来在一个数学课题上取得了卓越成果，而在这一领域，大多数研究者在年轻时就达到了顶峰。
He became a celebrity in 1988 with the publication of his first popular book, the bestselling A Brief History of Time. Ten further books have appeared, including four written for children with his daughter, Lucy. “The concept of an imprisoned mind roaming the cosmos plainly gripped people’s imagination,” Lord Rees says.霍金在1988年因其第一本畅销书《时间简史》(A Brief History of Time)成为名人。
之后，他又出版了10本书，其中4本是为儿童以及他的女儿露西(Lucy)所写。
“一颗身体被禁锢的心灵在宇宙中漫游的想法显然激发了人们的想象，”里斯勋爵说。
Prof Hawking enjoys his fame, happily filling lecture rooms from London’s Royal Albert Hall to the White House. He has featured in Star Trek, The Simpsons and many other television shows. Several films have been made about him, including a notable portrayal by Benedict Cumberbatch in 2004.霍金享受他的声誉，他高兴地发表演讲，从伦敦的皇家阿尔伯特音乐厅(Royal Albert Hall)到白宫的演讲厅都挤满了他的听众。