Renowned physicist Stephen Hawking died early this morning at 76 years old, leaving many of us very sad but also very inspired by his life, especially considering he was told he only had two years to live all the way back in 1963, at 22 years old, due to motor neurone disease. He beat the odds in a big way, bringing us all a lot of science and laughter over the years, and this is our small way of paying tribute.
A statement today from his children, Lucy, Robert and Tim, said: “We are deeply saddened that our beloved father passed away today. He was a great scientist and an extraordinary man whose work and legacy will live on for many years. His courage and persistence with his brilliance and humour inspired people across the world.”
In the above video, you can watch Hawking sing Monty Python’s “Galaxy Song” to help put things in perspective. His children’s statement continued, “He once said, ‘It would not be much of a universe if it wasn’t home to the people you love.’ We will miss him forever.”
Hawking has made plenty of fun appearances like this over the years, including cameos on Star Trek: The Next Generation (yes, as himself), The Simpsons, Futurama, and more. You can also get some extra Hawking by checking out The Theory of Everything, his recent biopic, which was all around a pretty good movie. (You can also watch Jane Hawking talk about the movie here.) Or, you can play some Science Kombat, in which Hawking is a playable fighter.
He also recently appeared in a charity comedy video in which he auditioned new voices, was involved in an initiative to send tiny space probes to far away locations at a significant fraction of the speed of light, and warned us about aliens killing us, AI killing us (more than once), climate change killing us, and us killing us—although those last two are basically the same. Now, it’s up to the rest of us to do something about it.
He also once did something we all kind of want to do in the back of our minds, but we’re not all exactly famous enough in the science world for it to mean anything: He threw a party for time travelers.
No eulogy of Stephen hawking is complete without the story of when he threw a party for time travelers pic.twitter.com/2B5pVr8x7u
— Mike Cavalier (@mikecavalier) March 14, 2018
Farewell, Stephen Hawking.
rip stephen hawking, a brilliant mind and deliverer of sick burns pic.twitter.com/v7vQZXHiKJ
— Nicole Zhu (@nicolelzhu) March 14, 2018
"People who boast about their IQ are losers."
As well as being one of the world's most renowned scientists, Stephen Hawking was also known for his wit and humor. Here are 12 of his memorable quotes https://t.co/MqlCZRmJ7L
— CNN (@CNN) March 14, 2018
the only stephen hawking story i have time for right now pic.twitter.com/t3ifhq8kek
— Glen Coco (@MrPooni) March 14, 2018
(image: Jemal Countess / Stringer)
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