Stephen Hawking

                                                         Stephen Hawking was born January 8, 1942 in Oxford, England. From an early age, he showed a passion for science and the sky. At age 21, while studying cosmology at Cambridge, Hawking was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). Despite his debilitating illness, he has done ground-breaking work in physics and cosmology and his several books strive to make science accessible to everyone.


                                                       The eldest of Frank and Isobel Hawking's four children, Stephen William Hawking was born on the 300th anniversary of the death of Galileo, which has long been a source of pride for the noted physicist.At a time when few women thought of going to college, the Scottish-born Isobel earned her way into Oxford University in the 1930s, making her one of the college's first female students. Frank Hawking, another Oxford graduate, was a respected medical researcher with a specialty in tropical diseases .Stephen Hawking's birth came at an inopportune time for his parents, who didn't have much money. The political climate was also tense, as England was dealing with World War II and the onslaught of German bombs. In an effort to seek a safer place to have their first child, Frank moved his pregnant wife from their London home to Oxford. The Hawkings would go on to have two other children, Mary (1943) and Philippa (1947). A second son, Edward, was adopted in 1956.


                                                         Early in his academic life Stephen, while recognized as bright, was not an exceptional student. At one point in high school, his mother recalled, he was third from the bottom of his class.


 Instead, Stephen turned his mind loose on pursuits outside of school. He loved board games, and with a few closfriends created new games of their own.At the age of 16 Stephen, along with several buddies, constructed a computer out of recycled parts for solving rudimentary mathematical equations.Hawking didn't put much time into his studies. He would later calculate that he averaged about an hour a day focusing on school.And yet he didn't really have to do much more than that.


                              In 1962, he graduated with honors and moved on to Cambridge University for a Ph.D. in cosmology.While Stephen first began to notice problems with his physical health at Oxford-on occasion he would trip and fall, or slur his speech,he didn't look into the problem until 1963, during his first year at Cambridge.For the most part, Hawking had kept these minor symptoms to himself.For the next two weeks, the 21-year-old college student made his home at a medical clinic, where he underwent a series of tests.Eventually, however, doctors did inform the Hawkings about what was ailing their son: He was in the early stages of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease).
 In a very simple sense, the nerves that controled his muscles were shutting down. Doctors gave him two and a half years to live.


                                                         But the most significant change in his life was the fact that he was in love. At a New Year's party in 1963, shortly before he had been diagnosed with ALS, Stephen Hawking met a young languages undergraduate named Jane Wilde. They were married in 1965.In a sense, Hawking's disease helped him become the noted scientist he is today,Hawking poured himself into his work and research.

Research on Black Holes:

                                                        While physical control over his body diminished (he'd be forced to use a wheelchair by 1969), the effects of his disease started to slow down.In 1974, Stephen Hawking's research turned him into a celebrity within the scientific world when he showed that black holes aren't the information vacuums that scientists had thought they were. In simple terms, Hawking demonstrated that matter, in the form of radiation, can escape the gravitational force of a collapsed star. Hawking Radiation was born.


  He was named a fellow of the Royal Society at the age of 32, and later earned the prestigious Albert     Einstein Award.

Abdul kalam

                                                       Dr. Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam born on 15th October 1931 at Rameswaram, in Tamil Nadu.Kalam's father was a devout Muslim, who owned boats which he rented out to local fishermen and was a good friend of Hindu religious leaders and the school teachers at Rameshwaram. he started his career as a newspaper vendor.

                                                      Abdul Kalam graduated from Madras Institute of Technology majoring in Aeronautical Engineering with DRDO and ISRO.As the Project Director, he was heavily involved in the development of India's first indigenous Satellite Launch Vehicle (SLV-III).As Chief Executive of Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme (IGMDP), he also played a major part in developing many missiles of India including Agni and Prithvi. Although the entire project has been criticised for being overrun and mismanaged.He was the Chief Scientific Adviser to Defence Minister and Secretary, Department of Defence Research & Development from July 1992 to December 1999.Pokhran-II nuclear tests were conducted during this period, led by him.He is popularly known as the Missile Man of India for his work on development of ballistic missile and space rocket technology. In India he is highly respected as a scientist and as an engineer.  

                                                        Kalam played a pivotal organisational, technical and political role in India's Pokhran-II nuclear test in 1998, the first since the original nuclear test by India in 1974. He is a professor at Anna University (Chennai) and adjunct/visiting faculty at many other academic and research institutions across India.With the death of R. Venkataraman on January 27, 2009, Kalam became the only surviving former President of India. 

                                                                                                                                    On Wednesday April 29, 2009, he became the first Asian to be bestowed the Hoover Medal, America's top engineering prize, for his outstanding contribution to public service. Kalam has received honorary doctorates from as many as thirty universities, including the Carnegie Mellon University and the Nanyang Technological University of Singapore.                                                         

                                          The Government of India has honoured him with the nation's highest civilian honours: the Padma Bhushan in 1981; Padma Vibhushan in 1990; and the Bharat Ratna in 1997 for his work with ISRO and DRDO and his role as a scientific advisor to the Indian government.Kalam is the Third President of India to have been honoured with a Bharat Ratna before being elected to the highest office, the other two being Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan and Zakir Hussain.He is also the first scientist and first bachelor to occupy Rashtrapati Bhavan.

                                               Kalam has been chosen to receive prestigious 2008 Hoover Medal for his outstanding public service. The citation said that he is being recognised for making state-of-the-art healthcare available to the common man at affordable prices, bringing quality medical care to rural areas by establishing a link between doctors and technocrats, using spin-offs of defence technology to create state-of-the-art medical equipment and launching tele-medicine projects connecting remote rural-based hospitals to the super-specialty hospital. A pre eminent scientist, a gifted engineer, and a true visionary, he is also a humble humanitarian in every sense of the word, it added.

Shakuntala Devi-Human computer

                                          Shakuntala Devi is an outstanding calculating prodigy of India.Born on 4 November in 1939 at the city of Bangalore in Karnataka state, Belonging from a very humble family, Shakuntala Devi's father was employed as a trapeze and tightrope performer and later on, as a human cannonball in a circus.

                                          It was once while she was playing cards with her father at the age of three that it was discovered that she is a calculating genius. It turn out that she beat him not by slight of the hand, but by memorizing the cards.  When Shakuntala Devi was six years old, she demonstrated her calculation skills at the University of Mysore. And by the time, she was 8 years old, she had again proved herself successful at Annamalai University by doing the same. However despite apprehensions from some quarters, Shakuntala Devi did not lose her calculating ability with the setting in of adulthood like other prodigies such as Truman Henry Safford. 
                           January 24, 1977. A cold and windy Monday afternoon at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. A beautiful young lady smartly clad in a sari, walks up to the stage. She sits down on a chair smiling at the hundreds of students and professors assembled in the hall. A scholarly professor writes a 201 digit long number on the black board at her side. The number occupies 10 lines and takes four minutes to write. After finishing the number, the professor takes out a stopwatch from his pocket and with a nod at the lady he starts the timer. There is absolute silence in the hall.


                       The young lady takes one long look at the number and closes her eyes. Seconds tick by. In deep concentration she appears to have gone into a trance. At the fifty-second mark, the lady opens her eyes and slowly pronounces the answer, ?546372891?. The professor checks it with the result given by the computer. Yes, she is correct. It is the 23rd root of the 201 digit long number. Earlier that day, the fastest computer of the time, Univac 1108, had taken 62 seconds to give the answer. Every member of the audience jumped to their feet and applauded the genius who has beaten the computer.

Shakuntala Devi as an Author

                                                   Shakuntala Devi has authored a few books. She shares some of the methods of mental calculations in her world famous book, Figuring: The Joy of Numbers. Puzzles to puzzle You, More Puzzles to puzzle you, The Book of Numbers, Mathability: Awaken the Math Genius in Your Child, Astrology for you, Perfect Murder, In the Wonderland of Numbers are some of the popular books written by her. Her book, In the Wonderland of Numbers, talks about a girl Neha, and her fascination for numbers. Her other books include Astrology for You and The World of Homosexuals.
                                                    Shakuntala Devi is an outstanding astrologer as well and gives remedies based on date and time of birth and place. Her clients include celebrities and well known personalities.
Shakuntala Devi : Human Computer, Indian legend - Don't forget this Great Indian Personality 
Share this 'n Let's Appreciate Her Talent.. !! :)

Bill Gates

Bill Gates is one of the most influential people in the world. He is cofounder of one of the most recognized brands in the computer industry with nearly every desk top computer using at least one software program from Microsoft. 
                   He came from a family of entrepreneurship and high-spirited liveliness.
William Henry Gates III was born in Seattle, Washington on October 28th, 1955.His father, William H. Gates II, is a Seattle attorney. His late mother, Mary Gates, was a schoolteacher, University of Washington regent, and chairwoman of United Way International.Bill Gates grew up in an upper middle-class family with two sisters.The Gates family atmosphere was warm and close, and all three children were encouraged to be competitive and strive for excellence. Bill showed early signs of competitiveness when he coordinated family athletic games at their summer house on Puget Sound. 
He also relished in playing board games (Risk was his favorite) and excelled in Monopoly.

   

He had an early interest in software and began programming computers at the age of thirteen.  In 1973, Bill Gates became a student at Harvard University,

While still a Harvard undergraduate, Bill Gates wrote a version of the programming language BASIC for the MITS Altair microcomputer.

In 1975, before graduation Gates left Harvard to form Microsoft with his childhood friend Paul Allen. The pair planned to develop software for the newly emerging personal computer market.

Bill Gate's company Microsoft became famous for their computer operating systems and killer business deals.On November 10, 1983, at the Plaza Hotel in New York City, Microsoft Corporation formally announced Microsoft Windows, a next-generation operating system.The success of Microsoft began with the MS-DOS computer operating system that Gates licensed to IBM.

On January 1, 1994, Bill Gates married Melinda French Gates. They have three children.Jennifer Katharine Gates was born in 1996. Rory John Gates was born in 1999. Phoebe Adele Gates was born in 2002.

In 2006, the second richest man in the world

In March 2005 William H. Gates received an "honorary" knighthood from the queen of England. Gates was bestowed with the KBE Order (Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) for his services in reducing poverty and improving health in the developing countries of the world.

Criticism

With his great success in the computer software industry also came many criticisms. With his ambitious and aggressive business philosophy,

 Gates or his Microsoft lawyers have been in and out of courtrooms fighting legal battles almost since Microsoft began.

                     Bill Gates lives near Lake Washington with his wife Melinda French Gates and their three children. Interests of Gates include reading, golf and playing bridge.9 facts about him are here 

1. Bill Gates earns US$250 every SECOND, that’s about US$20 Million a DAY and US$7.8 Billion a YEAR!

2. If he drops a thousand dollar, he won’t even bother to pick it up because the 4 seconds he picks it, he would’ve already earned it back. 

3. The US national debt is about 5.62 trillion, if Bill Gates were to pay the debt by himself; he will finish it in less then 10 years.

4. He can donate US$15 to everyone on earth but still be left with US $5 Million for his pocket money.

5. Michael Jordan is the highest paid athlete in US. If he doesn’t drink and eat, and keeps up his annual income i.e. US$30 Million, 

he’ll have to wait for 277 years to become as rich as Bill Gates is now.

6. If Bill Gates was a country, he would be the 37th richest country on earth.

7. If you change all of Bill Gate’s money to US$1 notes, you can make a road from earth to moon,14 times back and forth. But you have to make that road non-stop for 1,400 years, and use a total of 713 BOEING 747 planes to transport all the money.

8. Bill Gates is 54 this year. If we assume that he will live for another 35 years, he has to spend US$6.78 Million per day to finish all his money before he can go to heaven or hell.

9. If Microsoft Windows’ users can claim US$1 for every time their computers hang because of Microsoft Windows, Bill Gates will be bankrupt in 3 days!

Sarla Thakral

The dashing, courageous, Sarla Thakral was only 21 year old when she achieved that sky.

The year 1936 when the flying was like dream, flying in air was like miracle.

There were only male in the cockpit of the airplane.

At that time one lady entered the cockpit of a Gypsy Moth and flew into the blue skies, and made a history as India’s first lady pilot.

Inspiration:

Her first husband P.D.Sharma was a pilot.After she got married to him at 16 she was blessed with a daughter. Sarla’s husband and her father-in-law helped her achieve the ambition.P D Sharm’s family after all had nine pilots already and they were all supportive of the decision.

              “In fact it wasn’t so much my husband. My father-in-law was even more enthusiastic and got me enrolled in the flying club,” says Sarla and adds,”

 I knew I was breaching a strictly male bastion but I must say the men, they never made me feel out of place.”

              She obtained her ‘A’ license when she accumulated over 1000 hours of flying.

She was looking for the group B license that would authorize her to fly as a commercial pilot. 

But when she was undergoing training in Jodhpur, unfaith happened. Her husband died in a crash in 1939. 

She widowed at 24. She abandoned her plans to become a commercial pilot.

               She joined the Mayo School of Arts in Lahore. But her parents re-married her and she settled in Delhi after partition. 

She succeeded in establishing herself as a renown painter. Most of her water colors have followed the Bengali School of Art.

Along with paintings she also began designing clothes and costume jewellery.

She supplied her jewellery designs to several cottage industries for over 20 years. 

She had also started textile printing and her sari prints were a rage with the fashionable crowd.

One of the clients was Vijaylaxmi Pandit.

Now she is 91 years old young lady still flying high in his life.

“Every morning I wake up and chart out my plans. If there is plenty of work I feel very happy otherwise I feel a precious day has been wasted,” she says.