Outside Professor Hawking's office in the Cambridge Science Park you'll find a whiteboard on which "spur of the moment" equations and "Eureka!" moments can be jotted down — and as you approach the door, you'll be struck by pictures of the great scientist blissfully floating in midair during a zero-gravity flight. It's one way to escape the wheelchair to which he's been confined for most of his life, paralyzed by a rare motor neuron disease that has now robbed him of all movement, except for one muscle in his cheek. He uses it to work his computerized voice synthesizer, twitching his upper lip furiously, as he picks his way through a selection of words on his computer screen.
Meeting and interviewing Professor Hawking is a one-off experience. His withered body is dwarfed by the hi-tech wheelchair, but his presence in the room is huge. There's smoke coming off a dish on his desk, filled with shells, to keep the air humidified. Doctors told the young mathematician many decades ago he would not get old...now he's 65 and he's just embarked on his latest project, a series of adventure books on space science for children. The first book is titled "George and the Secret Key to the Universe" — if anyone has that key, you'd think it must be Professor Hawking. He's writing the trilogy together with his daughter, Lucy, and he's loving every minute of it.
It takes 15 to 20 minutes to compose a short answer on the computer, so questions have to go in some days before an interview. But here's some of what I learned: His interest in children's fiction comes from the urge to make sure kids know about the universe, what's out there and where we're heading. "Children are the next generation, they are the future and knowledge of science is crucial for the future," intones the voice synthesizer.
Days before, sitting in my kitchen, I was thinking about what questions — apart from the ones related to the book — I would want to ask one of the world's greatest living scientists. Here's one I came up with: Why is it so important to him that we understand the universe? He says: "It puts our human problems into perspective and political differences become insignificant on a cosmic scale."
I also asked him to name his highest wish: "It would have to be to find a unified theory of the universe, knowing why the universe began, why it began that way and whether this is the only possible universe." Then I aked close is the universe to the destruct button? "With increased knowledge comes increased power for good or evil. The trouble is that humans have aggressive instincts, which have been a survival advantage until recently, but now they threaten to destroy us all. Let's hope we can keep our heads until we spread into space and are safe." While the synthesizer whines out the answers the professor fixes one eye on you and though his lips are not moving, he can communicate intensely with just a look.
Earlier on, when I was looking around the office I noticed a number of pictures of the wheelchair-bound mathematical genius with Marilyn Monroe posing with a classic car. They were obviously PhotoShop creations, but as we pack up our gear, the synthesizer crackles into life — answering a throw-away questions from much earlier on — "Iit's not her body I want, it's her car," and he breaks into a big smile.