“Look up at the stars.” - Professor Stephen Hawking at the Paralympics Opening Ceremony, in circular Gallifreyan.
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This photo is from 1965, when a 23-year-old Stephen Hawking married Jane Wilde. That was after his diagnosis with ALS, the disease that would put him in the wheelchair (note the cane). But just a couple of years before that, he had no idea he had a degenerative disease — he was a healthy, active, drinking college student at Oxford:
Then, one day he noticed he was having trouble keeping his hands steady, and once fell down a flight of stairs. Hey, best to go get it checked out, right? Could be, like, an ear infection or something throwing off his balance. That’s when the 21-year-old (now studying for his Ph.D. at Cambridge) was told he’d be bedridden soon, and dead within a few years, a prognosis that is true for almost every ALS patient. Hawking, somehow, is still alive 50 years after his diagnosis.
Read more: 14 Photographs That Shatter Your Image of Famous People
