Unravelling mystery of the universe

In The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams puts forward the theory that if anyone ever discovers why the Universe exists and what it is for, it will immediately be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable.

The record broadly confirms that the solving of any scientific mystery creates an equally annoying new one, but cosmologists plug on, and Professor Stephen Hawking, the foremost celebrity of the field, plugs harder than most.

When he gave his inaugural lecture as Cambridge's Lucasian Professor of Mathematics, 28 years ago, he hinted that the cracking of the great secret of the Universe, a concept known as the Theory of Everything, was close at hand. It wasn't, though, as close as he had hoped, and in his end-of-the-century update, delivered in a state of visibly deteriorating health, the professor had to admit that: "We still have some way to go."

Big issues

Roughly how far, we should discover during Hawking's much-awaited series, Master of the Universe, being aired on Channel 4. He promises to re-explore some of the "fundamental questions of existence" notably how the Universe may have come into being, how and when it might end, and what was there before it. These are big issues, conspicuously lacking in the mass appeal that television feels happiest with, and they raise a question of their own.

What makes 66-year-old Hawking, almost completely paralysed by motor neuron disease and able to communicate only through the Dalek-like voice of a synthesiser, such a star? Is it, as many of his fans believe, that he's the greatest physicist since Einstein? Does he have a particular gift for explaining complex scientific notions in comprehensible terms? Or is it that the image of a great brain trapped in a wasted body exerts an unusual power of poignancy over the public's imagination?

Any assessment of Hawking as a public figure is further complicated by the well-documented and occasionally alarming details of his private life. When he left his first wife, Jane, for another woman, after 30 years of marriage, she responded by writing a withering portrait of their life together, in which she portrayed him as "an all-powerful emperor" and "master puppeteer".

The image of the ruthless manipulator is not one that Hawking's friends necessarily recognise. They talk of his remarkable lack of self-pity, his love of Wagner and old Marilyn Monroe movies, his indomitable spirit and the insatiable sense of scientific curiosity that last year led him to experience zero gravity over the Atlantic.

The book that made Hawking famous 20 years ago, A Brief History of Time, can be looked back on as one of the world's more baffling best-sellers. A contemplation of the deeper mysteries of cosmology it became a global phenomenon, selling more than 10 million copies. The failure of most readers to get past the first few pages has become a standing joke, and the book has been scoffed at as "aspirational furniture".

Stephen Hawking was raised in St Albans, Herts, where he attended the local public school, but failed to make an impression either academically or at sports.

"He was small and looked a bit like a monkey," recalls one contemporary. His father, Frank Hawking, was a distinguished research biologist, and the family home hummed with talk of scientific discovery. While other teenagers sampled the freedoms that post-war society had to offer, Stephen's coming-of-age was the discovery that the Universe was expanding.

At Oxford he appeared to blossom becoming the rowing club coxswain. But at his 21st birthday party his guests couldn't help noticing that he was having difficulty pouring drinks. Increasingly he found himself losing his balance and suffering spasms of weakness. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a disease that attacks the muscle movement controls of the central nervous system, had taken hold of him.

Today, Hawking can exercise only a few facial muscles, which he uses to communicate via an infrared sensor connected to a voice synthesiser.

It's a big Universe, and to see into it takes a big mind. Hawking may not be Einstein, but in the face of extraordinary adversity he has brought our understanding of existence closer. He tells us the elusive Theory of Everything will be unravelled within 20 years, and who is to say that he won't be the man to do it?