Rare recording of Stephen Hawking's original voice is fascinating to hear

English theoretical physicist, cosmologist and author Stephen Hawking can be heard speaking in a rare recording where he spoke about his childhood.

Hawking, who had amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) - a motor neurone disease which restricted him to a wheelchair and limited his ability to speak without the help of technology - had only been given a few years to live in his twenties.

He was renowned around the world for his incredible genius but also for his ability to make people laugh, which increased his immense popularity and respect throughout his life and career.

In a 1984 documentary for CBC’s Man Alive series titled ‘Stephen Hawking’s Universe’, cameras follow Hawking in Cambridge as he explains the ideas presented in his book, A Brief History of Time, which has sold more than 10 million copies.

Much of the 30-minute doc features Hawking and his family. Hawking is accompanied with a translator in the interview. Hawking says he knew from ‘about the age of nine’ that he wanted to be a scientist. He enjoyed playing ‘complicated games’ when he was a child and how this inspired him to find out more about the universe.

CBC

Hawking, who died in 2018, was famous not only for his widely read science books but for his work on the theories around black holes and relativity.

He also crossed over into popular culture as a result of his success in science and huge reputation. He made memorable appearances in TV shows such as The Big Bang Theory and The Simpsons. He was also the subject of the Oscar-winning movie The Theory of Everything.

Hawking was born on January 8 1942 in Oxford, the eldest of four children, and went on to become one of the world’s most acclaimed cosmologists. He was also the father of three children; Lucy Hawking, Robert Hawking and Timothy Hawking.

With Roger Penrose, Hawking showed that Einstein's General Theory of Relativity implies space and time would have a beginning in the Big Bang and an end in black holes.

BBC

These results indicated that it was necessary to unify general relativity with quantum mechanics, the other great scientific development of the first half of the 20th century.

Hawking also discovered that black holes should not be completely black, but rather should emit radiation and eventually evaporate and disappear. Now, this radiation is now called Hawking Radiation.