14-year-old poking fun at Stephen Hawking.

Never-you-mind, BMonkey - all those who count REVERE him as where we MIGHT evolve to someday.

Why didn't you?

DGrant- My science teacher would have flipped that I interupted his video. He didn't appear to hear them, anyway. But a lot of our teachers go by the "I hear nothing" rule.

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Thank Superman you guys understand me.

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What happened to him? I know the name but little more.

What kind of science?

What is ALS?
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease, is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that attacks motor neurons in the brain (upper motor neurons) and spinal cord (lower motor neurons).

These motor neurons control the movement of voluntary muscles. When the motor neurons can no longer send impulses to the muscles due to ALS, the muscles begin to waste away (atrophy), causing increased muscle weakness. Motor neuron, or nerve cell, death makes it impossible for the brain to control muscles or signal them to move.

Symptoms of ALS include twitching and cramping of muscles (called fasciculation), loss of motor control in hands and arms, impaired use of the arms and legs, weakness and fatigue, tripping and falling, dropping things, slurred or thick speech and difficulty breathing or swallowing.

In most cases, ALS patients do not experience impaired intellectual reasoning, vision or hearing. Eye and bladder muscles, along with sexual function and drive, are not normally affected.

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*shivers*

That's frightening. I am scared out of my mind by diseases, and Lou Gherig's is one of the worst in my opinion (topped by Ebola, but not much else). Is there any kind of treatment?

No, insomniak, there isn't. But as Rath pointed out, Dr. Hawking has managed to survive MANY years past the expected time limit. He is a SHINING example of not being defined by what others may tell you are limitations - or death sentences.

Thanks, DGrant and Rath... but I do have a serious phobia of diseases that has just increased because a girl in my community just died of menegitis. It only took a few hours. I remember we had to watch a health video once about flesh-eating skin disease and I almost passed out 'cause it bothered me so much... sorry, you didn't need to know that.

No day but today, I guess. The future will bring what it will.

Updated On: 9/16/04 at 11:30 PM

What a mean little bastard that kid is!

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Updated On: 9/17/04 at 01:11 AM

It was Dr. Hawking's study of quantum mechanics that led him to the theory (and eventual proof) of black holes. Although he has required 24 hour a day nursing care for the ALS, his study of black holes has continued and only last month he discovered another aspect of black hole mechanics that had always bothered him and other scientists. His prior theory stated that the gravitational pull of a black hole would prevent any particals of matter from escaping once it had been 'sucked in'. This did not explain where that matter went when the black hole disappeared. Basic physics told them that the matter had to go somewhere - and thus the idea of the 'mini' or 'baby' universe was born. From this, science fiction authors had a field day using black holes to transport characters across the universe.

In July Dr. Hawking proved that the matter swallowed by the black hole was not transmitted to an alternate universe. In fact, it was released right here into this universe, but in a 'mangled', unidentifiable form. (He apologized to all the science fiction fans for the disappointing news! lol)

It isn't the theory of black holes that fascinates me. It's the fact that while that deadly disease destroys his body, that incredible brain is producing this kind of work today. The miracle of life!

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