In Memory of Stephen Hawking
After coming back from my astrophysical observations trip in Morocco, I got the truly sad news of Stephen Hawking’s passing. Although the motor neurone disease left him unable to speak, Hawking’s voice became one of the loudest in the world. He was both fascinating and hilarious, and I’ll seriously miss to hear his pioneering ideas, and sick burns like this one:
Hawking’s achievements, both in terms of science and popular culture, often made global headlines. His work with theoretical physics and cosmology made him the Commander of the Order of the British Empire and earned the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom.
There have been several films about his life, from which I can recommend Hawking (2004) starring Benedict Cumberbatch, and The Theory of Everything (2014) starring Eddie Redmayne. He wrote many popular-science books, the most iconic one being A Brief History of Time. If you want to add anything to this list, you can comment on the post!
Recently, the University of Cambridge made Hawking’s 1966 PhD thesis “Properties of expanding universes” available online free. The author himself said: “By making my PhD thesis Open Access, I hope to inspire people around the world to look up at the stars and not down at their feet; to wonder about our place in the universe and to try and make sense of the cosmos. Anyone, anywhere in the world should have free, unhindered access to not just my research, but to the research of every great and enquiring mind across the spectrum of human understanding.”
Indeed, thank you for the inspiration.
1942-201∞
