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Stephen Hawking, science's brightest star, dies aged 76

He'll be missed. It seems the key work he did on black holes has proved vital to many discoveries since.

His ability to get himself across to so many people around the world was amazing, and somewhat bizarrely seems actually to have been helped by his extreme physical disability. The crippled genius seems to strike some deeply buried chord across cultures.

Chuckle. He was also politically on the Left of our Labour party. That's very left indeed by US standards - big on redistribution of wealth, which I hadn't really picked up on.

Still, he's as near immortal as you can get, with his work. What a life!

One of the world's most recognizable cosmic thinkers.

What a man. He was a real survivor. ALS killed my mother, a healthy, vibrant woman, in just two years flat. And he survived for decades with the disease. I do diverge with his thinking in that there is no God. The Universe is so huge, beautiful, and complex. There are so many things that I have seen that beat the odds of coincidence by trillions to one, that I find it hard to believe there's no Presence here. (Besides, I've died and seen the other side, so I know there's more to the Universe than Hawking saw!)

So, does this push Spot up to number 1?

He was truly an amazing man.

RIP, such a loss of such an amazing human.

Isn't it curious that Hawking died on Albert Einstein's birthday & that March 14 is Pi Day?

AnneBoleyn;1518323 wrote: Isn't it curious that Hawking died on Albert Einstein's birthday & that March 14 is Pi Day?


It isn't astronomical, but I calculate the odds of that happening to be

1: 48,627,125

Not a miracle, but maybe a sign?

tude dog;1518324 wrote: It isn't astronomical, but I calculate the odds of that happening to be

1: 48,627,125

Not a miracle, but maybe a sign?


No just a coincidence. Hawkings was an atheist but it was never something he made a big issue out of and yet the number of christians (not a personal reference to you tude dog or anyone else on this forum just a general comment) whose comments on his death centre round not his scientific achievements or the phenomenal strength of character he must have had but on his stated non belief in a god as if that somehow diminished what he had to say. Some even rejoice in his death and their malicious delight in the belief he is going to hell. Pathetic.

gmc;1518326 wrote: No just a coincidence. Hawkings was an atheist but it was never something he made a big issue out of and yet the number of christians (not a personal reference to you tude dog or anyone else on this forum just a general comment) whose comments on his death centre round not his scientific achievements or the phenomenal strength of character he must have had but on his stated non belief in a god as if that somehow diminished what he had to say. Some even rejoice in his death and their malicious delight in the belief he is going to hell. Pathetic.


First of all, I was expecting someone to question my math.

I did not know he was an atheist, and not surprised to learn that as I really never knew much about him.

Just making a comment for discussion.

I mean really, if the big guy wanted to make a mathematical statement, it would not be one of mathematical probability. So me thinks.

tude dog;1518327 wrote: First of all, I was expecting someone to question my math.

I did not know he was an atheist, and not surprised to learn that as I really never knew much about him.

Just making a comment for discussion.

I mean really, if the big guy wanted to make a mathematical statement, it would not be one of mathematical probability. So me thinks.


I assumed you meant it tongue in cheek following on from saint's post and the subsequent ones. I knew he was an atheist and a surprising number of eulogists have brought it up especially in america with a kind of ya boo god's got you now delight in his passing that's why I was thinking about it.

He was also left wing in his politics being notably very hostile to the attempts to privatise the NHS. Some day I might even read his book

If you were to believe Pahu's out of context quotes he would have you believe he actually lectured to prove the existence of a God. But that's Pahu for you.

Hawking has been living on borrowed time for the past 50+ years. He just had the will power to prove the doctors wrong, yet throughout his life always had the utmost respect & gratitude to them & the NHS in general. It's just a shame that it happened right now, when he was about to take Jeremy Hunt to court regarding the privatisation of the NHS. Jeremy Hunt, incidentally, being the one who actually had the gall to say that Stephen Hawking didn't understand statistics. In actual fact, Stephne Hawking understood statistics better than anyone. The difference is that he would use them to demonstrate the full facts - not cherry pick & misinterpret so as to promote a lie.

I understand his ashes are to be interred in Westminster Abbey next to Isaac Newton. No doubt an honour, but I feel he would have preferred to have had them shot into space.

I would have thought his wishes on the matter of disposal of his ashes were in his will if he doesn't want them interred in westminster abbey they won't be and any service would be for his family's benefit not his.

tude dog;1518327 wrote: First of all, I was expecting someone to question my math.

I did not know he was an atheist, and not surprised to learn that as I really never knew much about him.

Just making a comment for discussion.

I mean really, if the big guy wanted to make a mathematical statement, it would not be one of mathematical probability. So me thinks.


I would question whether PI day was chosen to be on the 14th March *because* that's Einstein's birthday in which case it could be 1:365.25

Bryn Mawr;1518398 wrote: I would question whether PI day was chosen to be on the 14th March *because* that's Einstein's birthday in which case it could be 1:365.25


What are you talking about?

AnneBoleyn;1518400 wrote: What are you talking about?


Post #11 and Tude's maths

Bryn Mawr;1518402 wrote: Post #11 and Tude's maths


My calculations are based on three random events happening on the same day of a year.

For simpl8icity I used 365 days as the year. Just making a point.

PI DAY has nothing to do with Einstein and certainly the death of Hawkins was not planned.

or maybe it was?

I sometimes wondered if theoretical physicists ever tried LSD. When I thought about it, most of their job seemed to be imagining things never seen or observed, but within the confines of the laws of physics and the match involved. Remembering one of my experiences, back in the day, it seemed to me that it might be of help.

I stumbled upon this article.

The article hasn't linked.

I was reminded of the story of the discovery of LSD which I assume you've heard but just in case...

It was an innocent senior and serious chemist who made it just to see if it would or as a failed effort trying to achieve something else, with no idea whatever of any potential hallucinatory effects. Didn't work and he got on his bicycle and went home, unaware that he'd got the stuff on his fingers in large amounts.

His bicycle ride home was interesting as the LSD soaked in and the trees started to smile and the sky to horripilate...

Scientists - cosmologists in particular - don't need hallucinatory drugs. They are already hooked on something much more potent and addictive. And waaaay more constructive.

edit: OTOH two of the most successful Computing Science people I've known have been at one time heroin abusers...

edit edit: chicken and egg?

I remember using LSD - Before Decimalisation, that is.

Actually, LSD was known about hundreds of years earlier, only not as the chemical name or in its purified form. It was the black fungal growth (Ergot) that grew on Rye & Black Bread, causing the victims to be overcome by "Demonic Possession".

tude dog;1518403 wrote: My calculations are based on three random events happening on the same day of a year.

For simpl8icity I used 365 days as the year. Just making a point.

PI DAY has nothing to do with Einstein and certainly the death of Hawkins was not planned.

or maybe it was?


OK, the date thing doesn't work in English so I hadn't realised the connection.