Stephen Hawking is mentioned in it as being currently a big name in science and popular culture.
Assuming he had the same scientific achievements but was physically healthy, would he still be a pop culture icon as he is now? Would he still make appearances on shows like STTNG and The Big Bang Theory? Would anyone outside of the scientific community (and geeks who follow such things) even know his name?
I suspect not. I suspect that what makes him a part of popular culture is his unique physical situation combined with his scientific achievements.
Is something similar true about Einstein? Some of the best known images of him are unique, to put it kindly.
I’d be inclined to agree. Hawking is mostly known for his original theories and mathematics regarding black holes, very important, certainly, and groundbreaking at the time (a few decades ago) but there are literally thousands of minds on par with his, nowadays. His physical situation just adds all the more mystique to his renown, for the layman.
I highly doubt it. Einstein’s 2 main theories and mathematics are, and have been, the backbone of all of physics for over 100 years; his ears heard the first murmurs of a new language and scientists of all description have been learning it ever since. He could have looked like Stephen Harper and still be recognizable to Joe Blow.
Are you going to make a similar claim that Neil deGrasse Tyson wouldn’t be popular if he wasn’t black? Or that Carl Sagan wouldn’t have been popular without…turtlenecks?
They’re popular because they’ve been or TV and/or written books. They’re not ground breakers, they’re science popularizers, which is something different. They have or had good agents.
One thing about Einstein v Hawking and their supposed pop culture status, is that (admittedly, I can only state what happens in my part of the world) Einstein is enshrined in the most general of mandatory science courses at the high school level (teenagers basically being the main progenitors of pop culture).
Honestly pop culture scientists like Hawking and Sagan are famous becuase they care about their public image. Most scientists would rather beaver away at their studies with minimal interruption while people like Hawking and Feynman made speeches, wrote books, etc.
They were also willing and able to discuss their views on a level comprehensible to the layman. That can be a real challenge when you’re working in an esoteric realm such as theoretical physics or genetic engineering.
I think Einstein would be world famous regardless of his image - his ideas really and truly changed the world - but it can be argued the others are famous due at least in part to their willingness to discuss their work with and to laymen.
I’m sure the ALS has added to his celebrity. Everyone can appreciate overcoming huge adversity, but only a relative few can appreciate the contributions he’s made to theoretical physics and only a very few can understand them.
Something that struck me the other day is that ALS has a usual prognosis of death within ten years, but Hawking has had it for something like 50 now. If he ever donates his brain to science, I think there are going to be many interested parties.
To a certain degree, part of what makes Einstein Einstein is his appearance and that general look has been used by popular culture many times over as part of the whole genius or mad scientist look. But what made Einstein famous wasn’t because he was a public figure but because his theories were so revolutionary that the fame was thrust upon him. In that regard, Einstein would be famous regardless of when he was alive. Sure, there were plenty of other great minds in his time and he sort of became the poster child for all of them, but that’s just how that sort of thing goes.
To that extent, I think a big part of Hawking’s public image is the fact that he has such a debilitating disease. That he can contribute meaningfully while so disabled is fascinating and so while the layman probably can’t say much about him other than that he’s a physicis, maybe that he’s the black hole guy, I don’t think he be famous if he wasn’t disabled. And so, because of all of his appearances sparked by that, he’ll probably be remembered for at least a generation or two. I think someone like Neil deGrasse Tyson is more famous because he acts as a scientific liason with the public, I also suspect he’ll be forgotten shortly after his career ends.
Another major difference is that while most people don’t really understand the implications of Einstein’s theories, there’s a certain intuitive level that most people have because of how important his theories are. Everyone knows E=MC[sup]2[/sup]. Everyone is familiar with the speed of light, space-time, and all of that. There really isn’t any way that black holes can relate to every day life, and what most people know about them is probably what they saw in a science fiction movie and isn’t even accurate.
To that end, I do think that Einstein will probably be remembered for hundreds of years, not because of his image but because of his significant contributions. I think as the pop culture contributions of Hawking start to fade into obscurity, he probably won’t be remembered to nearly the same extent, and to what he will, I think it will, sadly, be mostly because of his disability and not because of his scientific contributions.
This is why I’m such a fan of Mr. Hawking. I can almost understand what he’s saying. By almost, I mean that I certainly cannot understand his physics, but I can grasp the basic concepts and feel my mind expand with his awe.
His disability gives Hawkins visibility, but other scientists have become pop culture icons by making themselves visible through other means. These are all old (this is a part of out-of-Spain pop culture I’m not current on), but Carl Sagan, Asimov or Cousteau weren’t disabled and they were cultural icons.
In addition to his original work, Hawking is a science popularizer at least on a par with Sagan. I don’t know if he’d be as famous as he is now if he were healthy, but he’d certainly be well known. “A Brief History of Time” is a classic.
IMHO, Einstein would have remained a pop icon no matter what he looked like. Of course, his appearance made his photo instantly recognizable, but I am just as unkempt and no one would recognize me. His contributions were genuinely revolutionary.
Hawking has done extremely important work, but so have a number of less well-known physicists. How many people would recognize Feynmann? Bohr? I could go on indefinitely.
I once asked an MD why ALS is generally fatal within 2-3 years but Hawking seems to go on and on. He claimed that ALS (or motor-neuron disease) is a set of symptoms, not a single disease and different versions can have different courses. Still, I think Hawking’s version must be extremely rare.
