Dr Stephen Hawking has passed at 76

[Passepartout]

R.I.P. Stephen Hawking Theoretical Physicist. He had a great mind.

 

[easyrider]

I'm reading that Stephen passed away at 76. I liked his book " The Grand Design".

Bill

https://news.sky.com/story/scientist-stephen-hawking-has-died-aged-76-11289119

 

[DaveNV]

I just googled it, and ABC News has confirmed it is true. RIP, you interesting man.

Dave

 

[Steve Fatula]

He had a lot of interesting ideas. We won't really know how many of his ideas turn out to be factual or correct for a long time. What he overcame, was just amazing. Not sure I could have overcome. Respect.

 

[easyrider]

C= π*d = 2*π*r

pi = 3.14

Oddly and kind of interesting to me anyway, Hawkings passed on 3.14 which is known as pi day.

Bill

 

[T_R_Oglodyte]

Many years ago, when DD was in high school, Stephen Hawking came to Seattle. One item on his itinerary was giving a talk at the Seattle Opera house. DD was able to get extra credit for a class by attending and doing a paper on his talk. So the two of us went together.

He gave his "talk" and then there was a Q&A afterwards. I put "talk" in parentheses because he could not speak, so it was recorded. And during the Q&A, after a question was asked it would take him awhile to respond, as he had to transcribe his answer, and then put it through a voice synthesizer.

The process was interesting, but what amazed me was his ability to take highly theoretical concepts and put them into understandable terms. I recall that one topic that he addressed in his talk was whether black holes offered the ability to travel to through space and time. I remember that his answer was theoretically "yes" but in practice probably "no".

I no longer remember the details of his analysis, but I do remember that it came down to whether in space and time the black hole was a local maximum point, like the peak of a mountain where both the x- and y-values reach a maximum, or a saddle point, like a mountain pass where the x-values reach a local maximum, while the y-values reach a local minimum. If it was a saddle point time travel was not possible, and, while not conclusive, available information suggested that black holes were saddle points.

All I remember now is that conclusion, but at the time I was able to follow the thought process leading to the conclusion. And I thought it was pretty amazing to be able to present that type of analysis in a way that a person with only general scientific literacy, and no training in advanced physics, would be able to follow along.

 

[Talent312]

Occasionally, he was featured as a character on "Big Bang Theory."
I wonder if that burnished his image as much as the actual science.

-------------------------------------------------------
"This is the most dangerous time for our planet"
(The Guardian, 12/1/2016)

"Now, more than at any time in our history, our species needs to work together. We face awesome environmental challenges: climate change, food production, overpopulation, the decimation of other species, epidemic disease, acidification of the oceans... Together, they are a reminder that we are at the most dangerous moment in the development of humanity. We now have the technology to destroy the planet on which we live, but have not yet developed the ability to escape it..."
.

 

[Patri]

Occasionally, he was featured as a character on "Big Bang Theory."
I wonder if that burnished his image as much as the actual science.
.

Nah. If anything it showed he had a sense of humor.
The image he presents to many people is how he was portrayed on The Theory of Everything, and long ago charges that his wife was abusing him. Most of us have no understanding of his science. Or care, frankly.

 

[moonstone]

I found it interesting that he lived with ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease) for 55 years! He was just 21 when he was diagnosed. Most people are older when diagnosed and live a much shorter time.
A good friend & fellow firefighter of DH's was diagnosed at age 59 and only lived less than 3 years with it.
So sad on all accounts.


~Diane

 

[Passepartout]

I found it interesting that he lived with ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease) for 55 years! He was just 21 when he was diagnosed. Most people are older when diagnosed and live a much shorter time.

When he was diagnosed, Hawking was given 2 years. He survived over 50 years with the disease.