Everything about Stephen Hawking... Final tribute.

Pedro_P

• This thread is just a collection of articles related to Stephen Hawking and his unfortunate death.

Obituary: Stephen Hawking


Stephen Hawking - who died aged 76 - battled motor neurone disease to become one of the most respected and best-known scientists of his age.
A man of great humour, he became a popular ambassador for science and was always careful to ensure that the general public had ready access to his work.
His book A Brief History of Time became an unlikely best-seller although it is unclear how many people actually managed to get to the end of it.
He appeared in a number of popular TV shows and lent his synthesised voice to various recordings.
Stephen William Hawking was born in Oxford on 8 January 1942. His father, a research biologist, had moved with his mother from London to escape German bombing.
Hawking grew up in London and St Albans and, after gaining a first-class degree in physics from Oxford, went on to Cambridge for postgraduate research in cosmology.

As a teenager he had enjoyed horse-riding and rowing but while at Cambridge he was diagnosed with a form of motor neurone disease which was to leave him almost completely paralysed.
As he was preparing to marry his first wife, Jane, in 1964 his doctors gave him no more than two or three years of life.
But the disease progressed more slowly than expected. The couple had three children, and in 1988 - although Hawking was by now only able to speak with a voice synthesiser following a tracheotomy - he had completed A Brief History of Time - a layman's guide to cosmology.
It sold more than 10 million copies, although its author was aware that it was dubbed "the most popular book never read".
He received honorary degrees, medals, prizes and awards throughout his career and was honoured with a CBE in 1982. He was reportedly offered a knighthood in the 1990s but later revealed he had turned it down over issues with the government's funding for science.
Celebrity
Hawking discovered the phenomenon which became known as Hawking radiation, where black holes leak energy and fade to nothing. He was renowned for his extraordinary capacity to visualise scientific solutions without calculation or experiment.
But it was perhaps his "theory of everything", suggesting that the universe evolves according to well-defined laws, that attracted most attention.
"This complete set of laws can give us the answers to questions like how did the universe begin," he said. "Where is it going and will it have an end? If so, how will it end? If we find the answers to these questions, we really shall know the mind of God."

Hawking's celebrity status was acknowledged even by The Simpsons - he was depicted drinking at a bar with Homer, suggesting he might steal Homer's idea that the universe is shaped like a doughnut.
He appeared in a special documentary about BBC comedy series Red Dwarf during which he spoke about why he enjoyed the show and also starred in Star Trek: The Next Generation as a hologram of his image.
The rock group Pink Floyd used his distinctive synthesised voice for the introduction to Keep Talking, on their 1994 album The Division Bell.
Undeterred by his condition, he continued his work as Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge University, and in 2001, his second book - Universe in a Nutshell - was published.
Erratic
He believed his illness brought some benefits; he said before he developed the disease he had been bored with life.
But his condition inevitably made him dependent on others. He often paid tribute to his wife, who had looked after him for more than 20 years, and friends and relatives were shocked when he left her for one of his nurses, Elaine Mason, whom he married in 1995. The couple later divorced in 2006.

By 2000, Hawking was a frequent visitor to the emergency department of Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge, seeking treatment for a variety of injuries. Police questioned several people about allegations that he had been subjected to verbal and physical abuse over a period of years.
He was known to be an erratic, almost reckless driver of his electric wheelchair, and Hawking insisted his injuries were not caused by abuse. No action was taken.
In 2007, he became the first quadriplegic to experience weightlessness on board the so-called "vomit comet", a modified plane specially designed to simulate zero gravity. He said he did it to encourage interest in space travel and booked a seat on Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic sub-orbital space plane.
"I believe that life on Earth is at an ever-increasing risk of being wiped out by a disaster such as sudden nuclear war, a genetically engineered virus, or other dangers. I think the human race has no future if it doesn't go into space. I therefore want to encourage public interest in space."

In 2014, the film The Theory of Everything was released, based on Jane Hawking's account of their courtship and marriage. Hawking himself met Eddie Redmayne as part of the actor's preparation for taking on the role of the scientist.
In a series for the Discovery Channel, he said it was perfectly rational to assume there was intelligent life elsewhere but warned that aliens might just raid earth of its resources and then move on.
Hawking also predicted the end of humanity from global warming, a large comet or a new virus.
He collaborated with Russian investor Yuri Milner in 2015 to work on projects to find evidence of alien life.
He once wrote that he had motor neurone disease for practically all his adult life but said that it had not stopped him having an attractive family and being successful in his work.
"It shows," he said, "that one need not lose hope."

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Pedro_P

The physicist, who battled motor neurone disease for most of his life, has died at the age of 76.

Stephen Hawking, who was born in 1942, studied physics in Oxford and later went on to Cambridge for his postgraduate research in cosmology.

At the age of 22, he was diagnosed with a rare form of motor neurone disease. As he was preparing to marry his first wife Jane (pictured), doctors predicted he did not have long to live. They were married for 26 years and went on to have three children together.

He used a wheelchair and was largely unable to speak except through a voice synthesiser. Hawking shot to fame with his 1988 book A Brief History of Time, which sold over 10 million copies.

The physicist appeared on Desert Island Discs in 1992 with Sue Lawley. His chosen luxury was crème brûlée

Hawking later went on to marry one of his nurses, Elaine Mason, in 1995. They were married for 11 years before they divorced.

In 2004, Benedict Cumberbatch became the first actor to portray the physicist on screen. The BBC TV film, Hawking, was critically acclaimed.

In 2007 Hawking became the first quadriplegic to experience weightlessness on board a plane specially designed to simulate zero gravity. "I think the human race has no future if it doesn't go into space," he then said.

The world-famous physicist often delivered lectures at universities around the world, like this one he gave at the George Washington University in 2008.

Hawking met many famous world figures, including Nelson Mandela in Johannesburg in 2008

He won many awards in the fields of mathematics and science and in 2009, was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by then-US President Barack Obama.

He also went on to meet Queen Elizabeth in 2014 during a charity event at St James' Palace.

His life story was made into a 2014 film, The Theory of Everything, starring Eddie Redmayne who is pictured here with Hawking.

In 2017, Hawking spoke to an audience in Hong Kong by hologram, beamed live from his office in Cambridge. After his death, his children said his legacy would "live on for many years".

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Pedro_P

As the world mourns the death of Stephen Hawking, in Cambridge - where he lived and worked - people remember a familiar face often spotted on the streets and in the university's halls.
In the wake of the news, the mood in the city was not so much sombre, as one in which many recalled a visionary who had touched the lives of residents, students and academics.
From "I spotted him once in the pub", to "I've heard some of his inspirational talks", the scientist was synonymous with the city, which bears the mark of his legacy.
A bust in his likeness sits in Cambridge University's Centre for Theoretical Cosmology and the Stephen Hawking Building was named after Gonville and Caius College's most celebrated fellow.
Outside the very site which housed his accommodation when he joined as a PhD student in 1962 is a simple sign announcing his death.
Countless passers-by stop on their way to work, or to the shops, and pause to read it.
"His work is a testament to human determination," says history student Maddy Ducharme.
Her thoughts echo many of those who have lined up to sign a book of condolence opened by the college.
Some of those now studying at the university were inspired to study science by the professor, including physics student Arno Liu.
"When I was 12 my mum bought me A Brief History of Time.
"He wrote it in a very humorous way which kept me focused on the ideas he had. He was one of the reasons I got dragged into physics."
The 17-year-old was one of those who queued to sign the book of condolence.
"I quoted a Dylan Thomas poem, Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night. It's written for people not to give up, but to fight on in life."
Although he had not met the professor, Mr Liu was among those who attended Prof Hawking's 75th birthday celebrations at Gonville and Caius last year.
"Everybody was trying to chat with him but seeing him was enough for me," he adds.
Caius' law student Amy Edwards-Knight, 21, was also there and remembers a "gorgeous piece of music" which had been composed to mark the occasion.
"They had the choir perform and he gave a really lovely speech.
"He talked about what Caius had done for him, and his connections to the college, and waxed lyrical about the abilities of really understanding the universe and how he didn't think that he ultimately ever did, completely."
"I sat pretty close to him in the hall," adds Evan Adair, a 21-year-old student at the college.
"For me it was special. I'm a historian - I'm not a scientist - but I know that he's made a really big contribution to the way that we understand the world today."
Despite his failing health the professor still attended dinners in the college, and Caius' bar worker Jesus Gorjon remembers being asked to make room for a certain guest on one occasion.
"I was doing a dinner at the college and my boss told me to make some space for 'Stephen' and I said 'OK'.
"I didn't know who 'Stephen' was, but when I saw it was him, I was like, 'oh, I've made some space for Stephen Hawking'."
The professor also surprised TV actor Stephen McGann, who ran into him at Antonio Carluccio's restaurant in Cambridge.
Paying tribute on Twitter, the Call the Midwife star said: "To anybody who lives in or near Cambridge, Stephen Hawking was a constant reminder of brilliance that wants to share the same air.
"You would come across him in the street - in cafes or shops. I last saw him at the next table in Carluccio's. I'll miss that."
To anybody who lives in or near Cambridge, Stephen Hawking was a constant reminder of brilliance that wants to share the same air. You would come across him in the street - in cafes or shops. I last saw him at the next table in Carluccio's. I'll miss that. x— Stephen McGann (@StephenMcGann) March 14, 2018
Report
As people mourn the passing of the man whom many held in awe, those in his home city are fondly remembering a familiar man about town.
Several recall "coming across" the scientist in the street.
"He ran over my foot years ago on King's Parade," one wrote on Twitter. Another replied: "I can top that - I nearly crashed into him on my bike."
But Ms Ducharme sums it up for many when she says: "Professor Hawking showed such inspiration, such determination.
"We're all so lucky to have lived at the same time he did, and to live in Cambridge at the same time he did."
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Pedro_P

Honestly, it's the jokes we're going to miss the most.
Lwp Kommunikáció via Flickr CC By 2.0
I do not regret passing up the chance to take a selfie with Stephen Hawking.
I wasn’t friends with the famous physicist, who passed away on  Wednesday more than half a  century after being diagnosed  with the motor neuron disease ALS. I didn’t know him like many science journalists do. I never really spoke to him, and I never got a photo with him to show my grandchildren. I just ate some meatballs with him, and I’m happy with my choices.
Three years ago, I went to a conference in Stockholm, Sweden. It was coming up soon—like, why the heck did you wait so long to invite journalists, soon—and it was on theoretical physics, a subject that’s more than a little out of my comfort zone. But it was an exclusive invite, the email promised.
Plus, Stephen Hawking would be there.
And, well, he was already 73 years old, and I was working for a newspaper that could afford to send me, and I’d heard Stockholm was pretty nice in August. So I found myself the one unbooked AirBnB in Södermalm and buckled up for a week of listening to some extremely esteemed physicists discuss the black holeinformation paradox.
Stephen Hawking was not the only famous brain in attendance. In fact, when he arrived an hour late for the first day of the conference, he interrupted the speech of a  Nobel laureate. But his arrival still caused a hush to settle over the room; a sense of awe akin to being in church, and not just because we were in a room at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology that used to be a chapel (they keep Christ behind a gilded curtain these days).
Even among some of the most brilliant men and women in the field, there was still a sense of significance in the air when he arrived, and especially when he spoke. Yes, some of his colleagues rolled their eyes or shook their heads in disagreement with his particular takes on the theories up for discussion—he was a genius, but so are lots of people—the overall feeling was one of nearly suffocating expectation: Hawking was here. What would he have to say?
I was seated directly behind him, with a perfect view of his purple shoelaces and the screen of his computer, on which he typed out all his missives to the rest of the world. Even with the software’s predictive technology, it took him a minute or more to write out an entire sentence using the movements of his cheek. I remember seeing him start to formulate a phrase and feeling my heart race at the thought that I might see his contribution to the conversation before he even spoke aloud. I waited for each new word like it might be some grand prophecy for our age.
As it turns out, he was telling his companion he was pretty sure he’d left his speech on the wrong laptop.
That was the thing about Hawking: he didn’t even have to say anything profound. At one point in the conference, one of the attendees stood up and read a note he’d written the famous physicist. He’d just received a troubling medical diagnosis, he announced to the room. But he had courage that he would prevail, and it was all thanks to Stephen. He thanked Hawking not just for his contributions to the field, but also for showing such strength in the face of a hopeless diagnosis, and triumphing for so many years in spite of it. Hawking’s theories were impressive on their own, doubly so because he did it all with ALS. Anyone who’s had chronic and terminal illnesses creep into their lives can draw strength from his resilience, and I know I have.
Somewhere I have the audio recording of an interview I did with the conference organizer. Over reindeer meatballs and lingonberry sauce, she tries to help me understand what the heck she and her colleagues had been talking about for the past several hours. In that recording, there’s a brief aside where she says hello to someone and gives me the kind of casual introduction it’s polite to do when you’re the only stranger in the room. It was Hawking, and he sat inches away from me, and thankfully I was in the midst of an interview becausewhat do you even say to Stephen Hawking while you’re eating meatballs together?
The conference would have been a great meeting of the minds even without Hawking’s attendance, but it still felt an awful lot like most people there were trying to get some scrap of his time or attention. He was the reason many of the students being ferried around had gotten into physics, and no doubt served as an inspiration to science journalists in the room as well.
I wonder if we’ll ever really appreciate how much of himself he gave to us. It must be exhausting to serve as such a paragon of science and personal perseverance, and yet I don’t think Hawking begrudged anyone their admiration of him. I don’t think anyone would have objected to him spending his senior years as a private citizen, but he did Reddit  AMAsand sang Monty Python  songson television and tried to inspire us to find life in other solar  systems. He attended conferences. He wrote papers. He threw a party for time travelers.
There are countless examples of Hawking reaching out to share his wry sense of humor with the world, but my favorite is something he told us all that week in Stockholm.
"The message of this lecture is that black holes ain't as black as they were painted," Hawking said. "They are not the eternal prisons they were once thought. Things can get out of a black hole. So if you feel you are in a black hole, don't give up. There's a way out!"

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Pedro_P

Famed physicist Stephen Hawking delivers a speech titled "Why We Should Go to Space" during a lecture honoring NASA's 50th anniversary in 2008. Hawking died at age 76 on March 14, 2018.
Credit: Paul E. Alers/ NASA
In 1963, Stephen Hawking, then a physics student at the University of Cambridge, was given a few years to live. Now, 55 years later, after multiple best-selling books and many groundbreaking cosmological theories, the  acclaimed physicist and science  communicator has died. And his death has spawned an outpouring of respect and emotions from scientists the world over.
According to Lord Martin Rees — astronomer royal, emeritus professor of cosmology and astrophysics at the University of Cambridge, and fellow student of Hawking at Cambridge — Hawking viewed everything that happened after his devastating amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) diagnosis as a bonus. And he certainly didn't waste a minute of that time.
"He didn't just survive," Rees said in a statement. "He became one of the most famous scientists in the world — acclaimed as a world-leading researcher in mathematical physics; for his best-selling books about space, time and the cosmos; and for his astonishing triumph over adversity. Few, if any, of Einstein's successors have done more to deepen our insights into gravity, space and time."
"His passing has left an intellectual vacuum in his wake," said astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, who in 2017 became the first American to receive the Stephen Hawking  Medal for Science Communication. "But it's not empty. Think of it as a kind of vacuum energy permeating the fabric of space-time that defies measure."
A science icon
At only 32, Hawking was elected a fellow of the U.K.'s Royal Society, the oldest national scientific institution in the world, for his work on radiation that escapes from black holes, later dubbed Hawking radiation. But his scientific interests were much broader.
"He had the ambition and the ability to tackle fundamental questions about gravity and quantum mechanics, their role in black holes and the origin of the universe," said David Wands, director of the Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation at the University of Portsmouth, in the U.K., and a former student of Hawking at Cambridge.
"He realized that black holes can emit  radiation, which eventually leads them to evaporate," Wands said. "He also discovered that the same quantum effect in the very early universe can lead to small fluctuations in the density of the hot thermal plasma, a fraction of a second after the Big Bang, and this could lead to all the structures that we observe in the cosmos around us, galaxies, stars and, ultimately, planets and people."
A pop-culture physicist
In addition to pushing the boundaries of theoretical physics and stunning his doctors with his persistent survival against all prognoses, Hawking managed to accomplish something that many of his predecessors would deem impossible: He made a subject as complicated as astrophysics a matter of wide public fascination. His popularizing book " A Brief History of Time" (Bantam Books, 1988), in which he explains in layman's terms the evolution of the universe, occupied the British Sunday Times best-seller list for a record-breaking 237 weeks.
"He was a true genius who had a great admiration of and connection to the public," said Katherine Mathieson, chief executive of the British Science Association. "He simplified and explained, but without gimmicks. His assumption that people are curious about the universe and black holes was true. He inspired us all to wonder."
Hawking — who used a wheelchair due to ALS and spoke with a machine-synthesized voice due to a life-saving tracheotomy he had in 1985 after contracting pneumonia during a trip to CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) — became a true pop-culture icon. The outpouring of  condolences and expressions of respect on  Twitterfollowing the announcement of his passing has extended far beyond the scientific community.
"In loving memory of Stephen Hawking. It was an honor to have him," tweeted the  team behind "The Big Bang Theory" TV series, where Hawking appeared on three separate occasions, the last of which was less than a year ago. "Thank you for inspiring us and the world."
Hawking, according to his long-term scientific collaborator Roger Penrose, always enjoyed his role of "the No. 1 celebrity scientist." He also appeared in an episode of "Star Trek: The Next Generation," and voiced himself on "The Simpsons" and "Futurama," to name just a few. In 2015, British actor Eddie Redmayne won an Oscar for portraying Hawkingin the biographical drama "The Theory of Everything."
Despite his popular appeal, Hawking remained firmly rooted in the scientific world, having served as the Lucasian professor of mathematics at Cambridge, a highly prestigious position once held by Isaac Newton, for 30 years until he reached retiring age in 2009. He authored technical papers until his final decade, according to Rees.
"Huge audiences would attend his public lectures, perhaps not always just for scientific edification," Penrose said in an obituary in  The Guardian. "The scientific community might well form a more sober assessment. He was extremely highly regarded, in view of his many greatly impressive, sometimes revolutionary, contributions to the understanding of the physics and the geometry of the universe."
A vocal advocate of the rights of people with physical disabilities, Hawking showed the world that people can live full lives despite having severe physical ailments.
In 2007, the then-65-year-old took part in a zero-gravity parabolic flight that gave him a 4-minute taste of weightlessness. Hawking was also scheduled to fly on one of the first suborbital flights of Virgin Galactic. Unfortunately, this last dream of Hawking will not come true.
In a touching tribute, Virgin Galactic's billionaire founder, Sir Richard Branson, said he was honored to know Hawking, who helped name the company's VSS Unity  SpaceShipTwo vehiclein 2016. The spacecraft carries Hawking's iris pattern, said Branson, who lamented never getting the chance to see the physicist fly in space.
"I am so sorry we didn't get him into space as he so dearly wished, but so thankful he was able to play such a meaningful role in the development of a new frontier he was so passionate about," Branson said in a  statement. "It was a huge privilege to have him name VSS Unity, and we are honoured to fly his iris on our spaceship."

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Pedro_P

Physicist Stephen Hawking revolutionized the way scientists think about how our universe began and how it behaves.
Credit: Terry Smith/The LIFE Images Collection/Getty
Renowned physicist Stephen Hawking died  peacefullytoday (March 14) at age 76 at his home in Cambridge, England.
Hawking will be remembered by many as a cultural force — the brilliant thinker who wrote "A Brief History of Time" and played himself on " Star Trek: The Next Generation," " The Simpsons" and "The Big Bang Theory." He published more than 10 popular books (including a series of children's books, co-written with his daughter, Lucy) and was the subject of more than 15 documentary films and biopics. He once threw a party for  time travelers(which nobody attended). He did it all while living with the incurable degenerative disease amyotrophic lateral  sclerosis (ALS), which put him in a wheelchair for much of his life.
But beyond his inspirational biography and pop-culture bona fides, Hawking will also be remembered as perhaps the most important  physicist of the second half of the 20th  century. Hawking's work on black holes, quantum mechanics and the origins of the universe advanced the theories of previous thinkers like Albert Einstein and Werner Heisenberg, providing the most comprehensive explanation for the behavior of the cosmos to date.
"My goal is simple," Hawking was quoted as saying in a 1989 biography. "It is a complete understanding of the universe, why it is as it is and why it exists at all."
Here, we recall some of Hawking's biggest theories about life, the universe and everything.
Before the Big Bang
Hawking began sharing his vision of the universe in 1966 while studying physics at the University of Cambridge, when he turned in a doctoral thesison the origin of the universe.
At the time, scientists understood the universe to be expanding, though they did not know why. Hawking proposed the first description of what we now know as the Big Bang: somewhere, at the earliest edges of time, the universe began as a single point of infinitely small, massively dense space-time — a "singularity," as Hawking described it. From this single point, our entire expanding universe burst forth, bringing with it all the laws of time and physics we understand today, Hawking said.
"There is a singularity in our past, which constitutes, in some sense, a beginning to the universe," Hawking eventually wrote in the preface of his first book, "The Large Scale Structure of Space-Time" (1973).
Over the years following his graduation from the University of Cambridge, Hawking attempted to describe that universal starting point mathematically. By applying a complex model inspired by Einstein's theory of general relativity, Hawking and his colleague Roger Penrose created the first of several singularity theorems, which described the cosmological conditions required for a singularity in space-time to exist.
Escaping a black hole
Hawking had a fascination with the places where physics seemingly broke down. This included, famously, his study of black holes — stars that have collapsed into themselves, creating a vortex so gravitationally intense that not even light can escape them.
While working at the Institute of Astronomy at the University of Cambridge, Hawking began studying black holes through the lens of thermodynamics. In 1973, he published (along with several colleagues) a paper detailing the four laws of black hole  mechanics, describing the warped physics of the mysterious celestial bodies through a series of complex equations.
Hawking continued studying black holes and, soon after, had the eureka moment for which he is best known.
At the time, it was thought that nothing could escape the strong gravitational pull of black holes. In 1974, Hawking showed that, under certain conditions, black holes actually could create and emit subatomic particles, eventually dissolving and finally exploding in an intense burst of energy. In other words: Black holes were not completely black after all.
This stream of energy radiated by black holes was later named Hawking radiation, after he described it in a 1974 papertitled "Black Hole Explosions?"
A theory of everything
The discovery of Hawking radiation changed the way researchers understand the universe. By attempting to knit together the laws of gravity, thermodynamics, quantum mechanics and relativity, the study of black hole radiation also pointed to the existence of a so-called "theory of everything" — a single, unified theory of physics that described the behavior of the universe.
"Black hole radiation raises serious puzzles we are still working very hard to understand," Sean Carroll, a theoretical physicist at the California Institute of Technology, told New  Scientist. "It's fair to say that Hawking radiation is the single biggest clue we have to the ultimate reconciliation of quantum mechanics and gravity, arguably the greatest challenge facing theoretical physics today."
Hawking continued publishing papers for the following four and a half decades, but became most famous in his later career as a science communicator. He has drawn attention lately for his concerns about humanity's futurein regards to artificial intelligence, his vocal opposition of wars and his insistence that leaders like U.S. President Donald Trump take the threats of climate  change more seriously. A few weeks ago, he told celebrity physicist Neil deGrasse Tyson his theory about what happened before the  Big Bang.
Still, Hawking's most lasting quotesmay be about the importance of communication itself.
"Mankind's greatest achievements have come about by talking, and its greatest failures by not talking," Hawking said. "It doesn't have to be like this. Our greatest hopes could become reality in the future. With the technology at our disposal, the possibilities are unbounded. All we need to do is make sure we keep talking."
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Pedro_P

World-renowned for his scientific work, Prof Stephen Hawking was also a keen student of politics, with sometimes controversial views.
• Brexit
Prof Hawking campaigned for the UK to remain in the EU, warning Brexit would be a "disaster" for science funding.
After the referendum, he said he was "sad about the result", in an article for the  Guardian, warning against the "envy and isolationism" he said had driven it and arguing for a fairer sharing of wealth "both within nations and across national borders".
He was able to joke about it a few months later, at the Pride of Britain awards, when Theresa May presented him with a lifetime achievement award, describing him as "a man who has quite simply changed the way we look at the world".
"Thank you prime minister for those very kind words," he said, through his voice synthesiser.
"I deal with tough mathematical questions every day, but please don't ask me to help with Brexit." It brought the house down
• The NHS
The great astrophysicist got into an epic feud with Jeremy Hunt last year, after the health secretary accused him of spreading "pernicious falsehoods" about the NHSin a speech the scientist gave to the Royal Society of Medicine.
In an article for the Guardian, Prof Hawking argued that the NHS, which had saved his life, was being destroyed by "underfunding and cuts, privatising services, the public sector pay cap, the new contract imposed on junior doctors, and removal of the student nurses' bursary".
• The Labour Party
Prof Hawking was a long-time supporter of the Labour Party, although he was not, it seems, a fan of Jeremy Corbyn.
"I regard Corbyn as a disaster," he said last year. "His heart is in the right place and many of his policies are sound, but he has allowed himself to be portrayed as a left-wing extremist."
He was, nevertheless, persuaded to endorse Labour's candidate in Cambridge, Daniel Zeichner, at last June's general election.
• Donald Trump
Asked on ITV's Good Morning Britain programme in May 2016 to account for the rise of US President Donald Trump, he said: "I can't. He is a demagogue, who seems to appeal to the lowest common denominator."
• Science
With his gift for explaining the mysteries of the universe in an entertaining and accessible way, Prof Hawking was much in demand as a public speaker.
In 1998, he was invited to the White House to address then President Bill Clinton, First Lady Hillary Clinton and an audience including several notable American physicists.
"I don't believe science-fiction like Star Trek, where people are essentially the same 400 years in the future," he told them.
"I think the human race and its DNA will increase in complexity quite rapidly."
• Assisted dying
In 2014, Prof Hawking lent his support to a  bill by Labour peer Lord Falconerthat, if successful, would have allowed doctors to prescribe a lethal dose to terminally ill patients judged to have less than six months to live.
He said it would be "wrong to despair and commit suicide, unless one is in great pain, but that is a matter of choice".
"We should not take away the freedom of the individual to choose to die."
But he admitted that he had once briefly tried to end his life when he had had a tracheostomy - an operation to fit a breathing tube.
"I briefly tried to commit suicide by not breathing. However, the reflex to breathe was too strong."
• The Iraq War
In 2004, Prof Hawking read out the names of people killed in the Iraq War, at a anti-war vigil in Trafalgar Square.
"The war was based on two lies," he told the crowd.
"It has been a tragedy for all the families. If that is not a war crime, what is?"
He added: "I apologise for my pronunciation. My speech synthesiser was not designed for Iraqi names."
• Nuclear weapons
In 2007, Prof Hawking fronted a campaign by scientists, Church leaders, actors and writers to urge then Prime Minister, Tony Blair, to cancel Trident.
"Nuclear war remains the greatest danger to the survival of the human race," he said.
"To replace Trident would make it more difficult to get arms reduction, and increase the risk.
"It would also be a complete waste of money because there are no circumstances in which we would use it independently."
• Animal testing
In 1998, Prof Hawking sparked controversy by defending the use of animals in medical research.
"The fuss over the use of animals in medical research is ridiculous," he said.
"Why is it worse to use animal experiments to save lives than to eat them, which the majority of the population are happy to do?
"I suspect that extremists turn to animal rights from a lack of the more worthwhile causes of the past, like nuclear disarmament."

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Pedro_P

Stephen Hawking lived with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ASL) for most of his life. Above, a photo of Hawking in 1988.
Credit: Brian Randle/Mirrorpix/Getty
Renowned physicist Stephen Hawking, who  died today(March 14) at age 76, battled amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) for most of his life.
But how did he live so long with the disease, and what factors ultimately lead to a person's death from ALS?
Hawking was a physics student at the University of Cambridge when he was diagnosed with ALS (also known as Lou Gehrig's disease) in 1963, and he was given just two years to live. The disease causes the progressive degeneration and death of the nerve cells that control voluntary muscle movements, including chewing, walking, talking and breathing, according to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders  and Stroke (NINDS). There is no cure for ALS, and the disease is eventually fatal.
Although Hawking's cause of death has not been reported, his family said he died peacefully in his home, according to the BBC. "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," Hawking's family said in a statement.
Given that the average life expectancy after a diagnosis of ALSis about three years, Hawking was certainly an outlier — he lived for 55 years with the disease. Although no one knows how Hawking survived so long  with the disease, researchers do know that the progression of the disease varies depending on the person.
About 20 percent of people live five years after their diagnosis, 10 percent live 10 years after their diagnosis and 5 percent live 20 years or more, according to The ALS  Association, placing Hawking in that 5 percent. Factors such as genetics and age at diagnosis may play a role in a patient's survival times.
Most people with ALS die from respiratory failure, which occurs when people cannot get enough oxygen from their lungs into their blood; or when they cannot properly remove carbon dioxide from their blood, according to NINDS. In ALS, this happens because the disease can eventually lead to paralysis of the muscles that control breathing, according to  the Mayo Clinic.
In the late stages of ALS, it becomes hard for patients to exhale carbon dioxide, according to The ALS Association. High levels of carbon dioxide in the body cause low levels of consciousness, leading patients to sleep for long periods. Often, patients with ALS die very peacefully while sleeping, The ALS Association said.
Another possibly fatal complication of ASL ispneumonia , or an in ... pneumonia, or an infection of the lungs. Patients with ALS are prone to developing pneumonia because difficulty swallowing can allow food, liquids or saliva to get into the lungs, according to the Mayo Clinic. Pneumonia can also lead to weakening of the respiratory muscles, which, in turn, can cause respiratory failure, according to a 2011 paperin the journal The Lancet.
In some cases, death may occur due to malnutrition and dehydration, according to  The Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA). This may happen because the muscles that control swallowing no longer function properly.
Some patients with ALS have been reported to have heart problems, such as arrhythmias or irregular heartbeats, and such problems may play a role in death in some cases, the MDA said.
In Hawking's 2013 memoir "My Brief History," he wrote that at the time of his ALS diagnosis, "I thought my life was over and that I would never realize the potential I felt I had," according to the BBC. "But now, 50 years later, I can be quietly satisfied with my life," he wrote.
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