"But was the Big Bang a singularity. Or was it a concentrated, hot ball of energy – awesome and mind-bending, but still describable by the laws of physics?”
Could Hawking be making a comeback or losing his iconic status? Journalist Tim Folger does a spectacular job covering both angles of the article. The profile of the “master of time,” Stephen Hawking, touched on topics like the false rumors about Hawking retiring, “the capstone to his career,” and his possible setbacks when trying to “reclaim the aura of youthful genius.”
Ironically, Folger creatively compared Hawking’s future and comeback to black holes – “The master of black holes is himself becoming steadily less visible.” It is saddening to know that the person “popular media had likened to Albert Einstein” now has to try to regain the influence he once had on cosmology and physics. Hawking no longer has the ability to keep up with what is now happening to the field because of his thin body and fatal condition. Quite frankly, Hawking could be headed towards the black hole.
A) Lede: 20 out of 20. Folger was the eyes and ears for readers as he described exactly what was going on during the convention, what Hawking looked like, what he said, and the music that played. The narrative lede with its descriptive set of words definitely drew in me in.
B) Content: 17 out of 20. As I said before, I feel both angles were represented well, but I still feel there should’ve been more information about his comeback. Instead, the article focused on if Hawking was well enough to reclaim his status. The background information serves its purpose and solely supports the rest of article: explaining Hawking’s achievements and life.
C) Organization: 18 out of 20. The separation of his previous achievements and his comeback is acceptable, but I prefer that information be intertwined with the rest of the article. The transitions worked smoothly and most of the time I knew what I was reading.
D) Quality of writing: 19 out of 20. I loved how Folger wrote an interesting, easy-read article/profile on a physicist who studies black holes: He turned something not so appealing into something one would enjoy reading. He spoke to associates and co-workers of Hawking, which help support some of Folger’s points. There were also humorous parts in the article: Folger felt the need to plop in the quote when speaking of Hawking having three children -- “The disease only affects voluntary muscule.” Hoiwever, there was occasionally a bit of jargon scattered around.
E) Clarity of exposition: 19 out of 20. The scientific language was certainly kept at a minimum and that was one thing I enjoyed about the article. Folger was very descriptive and in-depth about the theories along with the happenings of the universe.
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