to the Pontifical Academy of Science. In 1982, faced with the fees of his daughter's schooling, Hawking decided to write his most famous book A Brief History of Time. While in Switzerland, after he finished a first draft of the book, he developed pneumonia and had to undergo a lifesaving tracheostomy, which removed his ability to speak. (McDonald, ln. 32) He soon after started using the Perspex Device, which is basically a sheet of Plexiglas with letters on it such that when he looks at a letter you can see which one he's looking at. Conversing letter-by-letter is tedious, and he moved onto a computer program that allowed him to pick words from a series of menus, accompanied by a voice synthesizer attached to his chair. He can speak up to 15 words a minute, and can save them on disk if he wants. The only bug in the program, he feels, is that it gives him an American accent. (AAYA, p.60) A Brief History of Time was meant to explain the basic ideas of laws that govern the universe. Hawking said that "Equations are necessary if you are doing accountancy, but they are the boring part of Mathematics. (McDonald, ln. 11) Most of the interesting ideas can be conveyed by words or pictures". The book was published on April Fool's Day, 1988--6 years after he started writing it. Since then it has been translated into 30 languages, and has sold about 5.5 million copies. A film has also been made, as well as A Brief History of Time: A Readers Companion ("the book of the film of the book"). Hawking is also a Fellow of the Royal Society. He attended the induction of Prince Charles into the Royal Society a year or two after his own induction, at which time he ran over Prince Charles' toe with his wheelchair! Hawking believes that he is no different than anyone else. He believes that science is for everybody, not just a few scientists. If ever there is a complete theory of the universe, he believes that it should be understandable by everyone and discuss...
