theceomagazine.com | 311981
Awarded the US
Franklin Medal
1982
Awarded a CBE1988
A Brief History of
Time is published1992
Works on film adaptation
of A Brief History of Time2009
Receives Presidential
Medal of Freedom from
Barack Obama2014
The Theory of
Everything movie
is releasedCYGNUS X-1 Wrong
Not so much a theory as a scientific wager with fellow
cosmologist Kip Thorne, Hawking bet that the galactic X-ray
source Cygnus X-1 wasn’t a black hole. Hawking lost, but as
he rationalised it, it was a security policy; if black holes had
turned out to not exist, most of his research would’ve been
incorrect, but at least he would’ve won the bet.THE HIGGS BOSON Wrong
Hawking was a longstanding and fervent sceptic when it
came to the formerly hypothetical Higgs boson, the
existence of which would prove the ‘Standard Model’ of
physics to be correct. In 2012, when CERN declared the
existence of the Higgs boson to be all but proven, Hawking
conceded defeat and lost his US$100 bet with theoretical
physicist Gordon Kane that the Higgs particle would never
be found. He went on to recommend that Peter Higgs
(originator of the theory) be awarded a Nobel Prize.BLACK HOLE INFORMATION LOSS
Maybe wrong
After Cygnus X-1, Thorne and Hawking joined forces and
wagered against John Preskill that information that fell into
a black hole would be irretrievably lost. Most physicists
disagreed with this since it meant that all of quantum
mechanics was wrong. Hawking went on to concede.TIME TRAVEL Maybe right
In 1992, Hawking conjectured that time travel was
impossible, so in 2009, he hosted a party, replete with hors
d’oeuvres and champagne. However, he didn’t tell anyone
about the party until afterwards, inviting time travellers
to (have) attend(ed). Seeing as no-one had turned up,
Hawking took it as a tentative victory.Our greatest minds | INSPIRE