British scientist Stephen Hawking dead at age 76

[angelburst29]

LONDON: Renowned British physicist Stephen Hawking, whose mental genius and physical disability made him a household name and inspiration across the globe, has died at age 76, his family said Wednesday.

British scientist Stephen Hawking dead at age 76: family spokesman Wednesday 14 March 2018
http://www.arabnews.com/node/1265946/world

Hawking, whose 1988 book "A Brief History of Time" became an unlikely worldwide bestseller and cemented his superstar status, dedicated his life to unlocking the secrets of the Universe.

His genius and wit won over fans from far beyond the rarified world of astrophysics, earning comparisons with Albert Einstein and Sir Isaac Newton.

Hawking died peacefully at his home in the British university city of Cambridge in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

"We are deeply saddened that our beloved father passed away today," professor Hawking's children, Lucy, Robert, and Tim said in a statement carried by Britain's Press Association news agency.

"He was a great scientist and an extraordinary man whose work and legacy will live on for many years."

Hawking defied predictions he would only live for a few years after developing a form of motor neurone disease in 1964 at the age of 22.

The illness gradually robbed him of mobility, leaving him confined to a wheelchair, almost completely paralysed and unable to speak except through his trademark voice synthesiser.

"His courage and persistence with his brilliance and humour inspired people across the world," his family said.

"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."

Born on January 8, 1942 -- 300 years to the day after the death of the father of modern science, Galileo Galilei -- Stephen William Hawking became one of the world's most well-regarded scientists and entered the pantheon of science titans.

His death was announced on the 139th anniversary of the birth of Albert Einstein.

Inside the shell of his increasingly useless body was a razor-sharp mind, with an enduring fascination with the mysteries of black holes.

His work focused on bringing together relativity -- the nature of space and time -- and quantum theory -- how the smallest particles behave -- to explain the creation of the Universe and how it is governed.

"My goal is simple," he once said. "It is complete understanding of the universe, why it is as it is and why it exists at all."

But he was also a beloved figure in popular culture, with cameos in "Star Trek: The Next Generation" and "The Simpsons", while his voice appeared in Pink Floyd songs.

Tributes began pouring in from scientists and celebrities around the world, lauding him as an inspiration.

American astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson tweeted his condolences, with a characteristically cosmological reference.

"His passing has left an intellectual vacuum in his wake. But it's not empty. Think of it as a kind of vacuum energy permeating the fabric of spacetime that defies measure," the scientist said.

Professor Alan Duffy, a Research Fellow in the Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing at The Royal Institution of Australia, described Hawking's work as "legendary".

"His writings were inspirational to many scientists and enriched the lives of millions with the latest science and cosmic perspectives," he said.

Hawking's first marriage to Jane Wilde in 1965 gave him three children and was immortalised in the 2014 film "The Theory of Everything".

The couple split after 25 years and he married his former nurse, Elaine Mason, but the union broke down amid allegations, denied by him, of abuse.

Hawking became one of the youngest fellows of Britain's most prestigious scientific body, the Royal Society, at the age of 32.

In 1979 he was appointed Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge University -- a post previously held by Newton -- where he had moved from Oxford University to study theoretical astronomy and cosmology.

Hawking was an outspoken commentator on life back on earth, voicing his disapproval in recent years of both the election of Donald Trump in the United States, and Britain's vote to leave the European Union.

He was unafraid of ruffling the feathers of the religious, dismissing the concept of an afterlife in a 2011 Guardian interview.

"I have lived with the prospect of an early death for the last 49 years. I'm not afraid of death, but I'm in no hurry to die. I have so much I want to do first," he said at the time.

"I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail. There is no heaven or afterlife for broken down computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark," he added.

Renowned British physicist Stephen Hawking, whose mental genius and physical disability made him a household name and inspiration across the globe, has died at age 76, a family spokesman said Wednesday.

British scientist Stephen Hawking dead at age 76
http://www.france24.com/en/20180314-british-scientist-stephen-hawking-dead-age-76

"We are deeply saddened that our beloved father passed away today," professor Hawking's children, Lucy, Robert, and Tim said in a statement carried by Britain's Press Association news agency.

"He was a great scientist and an extraordinary man whose work and legacy will live on for many years."

 

[Gawan]

May he rest in peace.

 

[gdpetti]

Not to get all woo-woo on everyone... BUT... ;D see if this doesn't seem to fit many aspects of this guy's equation over the years:

Stephen Hawking died and has been replaced

by Miles Mathis
First published April 17, 2015

I have written several papers critiquing Stephen Hawking, including a long one on his Brave New World series for the BBC. But this is my first paper really linking my science research with my faked
events research. I will use simple photo analysis and facial analysis to quickly show you the current Stephen Hawking is not the same person as the original Stephen Hawking.

This should not surprise you too much, especially if you know something about ALS. ALS is Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease. We are told Hawking has had ALS for over 52 years,
which is a record by many decades. Jason Becker is the only person I have heard of who has lived more than 20 years with the disease, so there is about a three-decade difference between the longest survivor and the second longest survivor. That is a more than 100% difference between first and second place. It would be like Justin Gatlin running the 100 meters in 9.8 seconds, and Usain Bolt beating him with a time of 4.5 seconds. In other words, statistically it doesn't happen.

The average survival time for ALS is four years. When Hawking was first diagnosed in 1963, doctors gave him two years to live. And yet here we are, 52 years later and counting. Should you believe it?
Well, no. Like Becker, it appears the real Hawking did beat the odds and live for about 20 years. But at some point he was replaced. I have no proof he died, but I assume that is why they replaced him.
He was a very useful public relations entity for physics, and they didn't want to lose him.

But rather than speculate on that, let us go right to the evidence. I won't call it proof, since of course you are free to disagree with me. This is an opinion piece, not a court transcript; and even if it were a
stamped court finding, you would be free to disagree with it. You don't have to agree with anythinganyone tells you, ever. Remember that. This paper is nothing more than presented evidence, evidence
I find compelling. If you also find it compelling, fine. If you don't, also fine.
[...]

milesmathis.com/hawk3.pdf

From the end of that quote he goes on to lots of pictures over the years.... rather obvious differences... but my compliant with Hawking was always his lack of any real insight... especially as the years went by... you could blame it on the disease and no one would complain, right? Tie in the Einstein issue discussed on this site with (L)'s sessions and then tie in similar session data on similiar 'deaths' and it makes an intriguing discussion, no? ;)
Oh, I couldn't resist... well I could, but don't want to.

Another reason I noticed the hands is that they don't look like ALS hands. In Hawking's biography, they admit that his fingers had already begun to curl in the 1960's. Those with this disease not only
can't straighten their fingers, they can't straighten their wrists. In older pictures of Hawking, he has badly curled wrists, with his left hand normally bent sideways. So how did his hands suddenly get so
smooth and relaxed in his 70's?

[...]

in mid-1985, Hawking contracted pneumonia, which in his condition was life-threatening; he was so ill that Jane was asked if life support should be terminated. She refused but the consequence was a
tracheotomy which would require round-the-clock nursing care, and remove what remained of his speech. The National Health Service would pay for a nursing home, but Jane was determined that he would live at
home. The cost of the care was funded by an American foundation.

Nurses were hired for the three shifts required to provide the round-the-clock support he required. One of those employed was Elaine Mason, who was to become Hawking's second wife. Wow. It's all there, we only
have to unwind it. First of all, if you have had ALS for 23 years and have pneumonia to the point that doctors are recommending life support be terminated, a tracheotomy isn't going to cure you immediately. A tracheotomy is just the procedure of drilling a hole in your windpipe so you can breath through it instead of your nose or mouth. But the problems obviously went far beyond that, or they wouldn't have been recommending life support termination. He was probably losing control of his diaphragm, and couldn't fill his lungs on his own. That is what happens with ALS, you know: you lose control of parts of your body one by one, until you finally lose control of them all. We aren't told why a tracheotomy suddenly allowed him to go off the ventilator, for instance. So none of this makes any sense. If you have any doctor friends, ask them what they think of this paragraph at Wikipedia. They may tell you the truth. This makes the likely date of the switch 1985, which is three years before A Brief History of Time came out. And it looks like Elaine Mason married the blonde impostor, not Hawking. Which brings us to the next clue:

By December 1977, [Hawking's first wife] Jane had met organist Jonathan Hellyer Jones when singing in a church choir. Hellyer Jones became close to the Hawking family, and by the mid-1980s, he and Jane had
developed romantic feelings for each other. “By the mid-1980's.” That confirms the date of 1985 as the date of the switch. If Hawking died in 1985, Jane would of course be free to move on to Jones. This would also absolve her of any taint of adultery, so my reading is actually less sordid (and more believable) than the mainstream reading. It explains all the partner switches in the 1980's.

To continue to pursue this line of reasoning, let us look at a clue hidden (probably on purpose) here. The cost of his care was funded by an American foundation. That probably didn't jump out at you, since it is written in a language to make it disappear for most people. But that very language acted as a red flag for me. So what American foundation funded this? It took some digging, but it is the MacArthur Foundation. This is a huge red flag, since John T. MacArthur was the owner of Bankers Life and Casualty, one of the largest insurance firms. At the time of his death he was said to have been one of the three richest men in the US. So we should look at his foundation like we look at the Rockefeller Foundation or the Ford Foundation: that is to say, with high suspicion.

MacArthur owned Bankers Life from 1935 to 1978. In that year, most of his wealth went into his Foundation, we are told. Curiously, in the next year, 1979, a large financial services holding company called Conseco
(now CNO) was born. It immediately began buying up insurance companies, including Bankers Life and Casualty. Get ready for this: it bought Bankers Life in 1986, the very same year the MacArthur Foundation began funding Hawking. Coincidence? We'll see.

Fun stuff, no? reality is like that, no? :)

 

[Andrian]

May he rest in peace.

 

[angelburst29]

Stephen Hawking’s Ashes to Sit Near Graves of Newton and Darwin 3.21.2018
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/stephen-hawkings-ashes-to-sit-near-graves-of-newton-and-darwin/ar-BBKuvYL

The ashes of world famous physicist Steven Hawking will be interred in London's Westminster Abbey near the graves of ground-breaking scientists Sir Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin.

In a statement released by the Abbey on Tuesday, the Very Reverend Dr. John Hall, Dean of Westminster, said it was a "fitting" tribute to the British scientist who passed away last week at the age of 76.

"We believe it to be vital that science and religion work together to seek to answer the great questions of the mystery of life and of the universe," Hall said in the statement.

Isaac Newton was buried at the Abbey following his death in 1727, as was naturalist Charles Darwin a century and a half later in 1882.

The Abbey announced there would also be a service of thanksgiving in Hawking's honor later in the year.

Considered by many to be the greatest scientist of his generation, Hawking overcame a debilitating disease to gain a worldwide following for his brilliant work in theoretical physics.

He was born in Oxford, England, in 1942 on the 300th anniversary of the death of astronomer and physicist Galileo Galilei.

Along with fellow physicist Roger Penrose, Hawking merged Einstein's theory of relativity with quantum theory to suggest that space and time would begin with the Big Bang and end in black holes.

He also published hugely popular books that allowed readers to join him in probing the mysteries of the universe. His landmark "A Brief History of Time" sold more than 10 million copies.

He accomplished all this while suffering from ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), a neurodegenerative disease that is usually fatal within a few years. He was diagnosed in 1963.

Although his disease left him paralyzed and using a wheelchair for mobility, Hawking said on his website he had tried not to let it affect the way he lived his life.

"I try to lead as normal a life as possible, and not think about my condition, or regret the things it prevents me from doing, which are not that many," he wrote on his website.

Following news of his death, his fellow scientists around the world paid tribute to Hawking, with Neil deGrasse Tyson saying he had left an "intellectual vacuum in his wake."

"But it's not empty. Think of it as a kind of vacuum energy permeating the fabric of spacetime that defies measure," the astrophysicist said on his official Twitter account.


May he rest in peace.

 

[beetlemaniac]

Not to get all woo-woo on everyone... BUT... ;D see if this doesn't seem to fit many aspects of this guy's equation over the years:

I've often had the notion that Stephen Hawking died some time ago, though I consciously "knew" that he was still alive. But to create such an elaborate ruse (i.e. a replacement actor) seems too far of a stretch, if it was for the purposes of maintaining mainstream science's dominance. Who would actually be responsible for doing something like this?

 

[angelburst29]

Not to get all woo-woo on everyone... BUT... ;D see if this doesn't seem to fit many aspects of this guy's equation over the years:

I've often had the notion that Stephen Hawking died some time ago, though I consciously "knew" that he was still alive. But to create such an elaborate ruse (i.e. a replacement actor) seems too far of a stretch, if it was for the purposes of maintaining mainstream science's dominance. Who would actually be responsible for doing something like this?

Reading your comment, the words, "head-strong" came to mind. I'm sure, it probably has different meanings that could apply to it but I'm thinking in line ... where the mind is so focused - that it has the ability to over ride physical properties of the body? In a sense, I'm speaking in terms of the "will of the individual" where the will to survive is so strong in it's conviction - that it defies what we consider natural processes? Did Hawking discover and master something about the mind-body connection that we have yet to discover in ourselves or learn to apply and utilize?

Take what Hawking said on his website, "I try to lead as normal a life as possible, and not think about my condition, or regret the things it prevents me from doing, which are not that many."

 

[Nienna]

Not to get all woo-woo on everyone... BUT... ;D see if this doesn't seem to fit many aspects of this guy's equation over the years:

This has all been discussed, along with Miles Mathus, in this thread:

https://cassiopaea.org/forum/index.php/topic,38817.0.html

 

[beetlemaniac]

Not to get all woo-woo on everyone... BUT... ;D see if this doesn't seem to fit many aspects of this guy's equation over the years:

I've often had the notion that Stephen Hawking died some time ago, though I consciously "knew" that he was still alive. But to create such an elaborate ruse (i.e. a replacement actor) seems too far of a stretch, if it was for the purposes of maintaining mainstream science's dominance. Who would actually be responsible for doing something like this?

Reading your comment, the words, "head-strong" came to mind. I'm sure, it probably has different meanings that could apply to it but I'm thinking in line ... where the mind is so focused - that it has the ability to over ride physical properties of the body? In a sense, I'm speaking in terms of the "will of the individual" where the will to survive is so strong in it's conviction - that it defies what we consider natural processes? Did Hawking discover and master something about the mind-body connection that we have yet to discover in ourselves or learn to apply and utilize?

Take what Hawking said on his website, "I try to lead as normal a life as possible, and not think about my condition, or regret the things it prevents me from doing, which are not that many."

Do you mean to say the Hawking decided to have someone replace him after he died? I'm not getting your drift, sorry if I'm being a little thick.

In any case Miles Mathis has proven himself to be quite the avid speculator and I suppose he is a bit too imaginative for his own good?

 

[SocietyoftheSpectacle]

Stephen Hawking may have been suffering from 'polio', says US expert



telegraph.co.uk/science/2018/03/19/wrong-theory-stephen-hawking-may-have-suffering-polio/

 

[angelburst29]

Colleagues, stars hail Stephen Hawking at Cambridge funeral Saturday 31 March 2018
http://www.arabnews.com/node/1276786/world

Some 500 invited guests were gathering for the private funeral of famed British scientist Stephen Hawking.

Crowds of them came to the University Church of St. Mary the Great in the English town of Cambridge on Saturday for the service honoring Hawking, who died on March 14 at age 76.

Actor Eddie Redmayne, who portrayed Hawking in the 2014 biographical drama “The Theory of Everything,” planned to give a reading from Ecclesiastes during the service. There will also be a reading by Astronomer Royal Martin Reese and eulogies by one of Hawking’s children and a former student.

The bell at the church, known locally as Great St. Mary’s, will toll 76 times.

Hawking, who suffered from motor neurone disease, was known for his groundbreaking research into black holes and other phenomena.

 

[angelburst29]

An online auction hosted by Christie's in London will feature treasured work and memorabilia of Britain's legendary physicist.

30.10.2018 - Steven Hawking's Thesis that crashed Cambridge Uni Website goes on sale
Steven Hawking's Thesis That Crashed Cambridge Uni Website Goes on Sale

A selection of 22 lots will see one of Hawking's most important papers go on sale. Christie's calls Hawking's thesis typescript the highlight of the group. It is estimated to gather up to $191,000.

Signed by the scientist himself as 'This dissertation is my original work,' the thesis was made available online by Cambridge University in October 2017. The work attracted so many online visitors that it crashed the university's website. Christie's is offering one of only five original copies of Hawking's thesis.

Bidders will also get the chance to buy the physicist's bomber jacket, costing $127-191.

The script for one of Prof. Hawking's appearances on The Simpsons will also be going under the hammer as part of the sale, entitled 'On the Shoulders of Giants'.

A collection of the physicist's medals, including the Albert Einstein Award for achievement in the natural sciences, has been estimated at $12,000-19,000.

Hawking's medals and awards Stephen Hawking. 1975-1999 Estimate: GBP

The first American edition of Hawking's famous work Brief History of Time 'signed' with his thumbprint also appears as a lot for sale.

His wheelchair will be the last lot, with all proceeds going to the Stephen Hawking Foundation and the Motor Neurone Disease Association.

"We are very pleased to have the assistance of Christie's to help us with the important matter of managing our beloved father's archives and his unique and precious collection of personal and professional belongings, chronicling his life and work. We hope to be able to offer our father's archive to the nation through the Acceptance in Lieu* process as we feel it is a huge part of his legacy but also of the history of science in this country. We are also giving admirers of his work the chance to acquire a memento of our father's extraordinary life in the shape of a small selection of evocative and fascinating items. In addition, we will be auctioning one of our father's historic wheelchairs, the proceeds of which will be donated to the Motor Neurone Disease Association and the Stephen Hawking Foundation," Lucy Hawking, journalist, educator and Stephen Hawking's daughter, said in the light of the auction.

Stephen Hawking passed away on March 14, 2018, leaving an enormous legacy to the scientific community globally.

 

[angelburst29]

Stephen Hawking's legacy is being honoured by the Royal Mint with a new 50 pence piece.

13/03/2019 - Royal Mint unveils new 50p 'black hole' coin in honor of Stephen Hawking's work
Royal Mint unveils new 50p 'black hole' coin in honour of Stephen Hawking's work

The new coin — which was inspired by Hawking's work on black holes outlined in his bestselling book "A Brief History of Time" — has an engraving of the late scientist's name along with an illustration of concentric circles, supposed to depict a black hole.

It also sports Hawking's famous equation on the black hole theory.

The coin was made for a commemoration edition, which is not circulated as normal change.

The theoretical physicist died last year at age 76 after living with the muscle-wasting disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) that left him wheelchair-bound and unable to communicate without the help of a machine for much of his life.

Hawking's children, Lucy and Tim visited the Royal Mint on Thursday to see the new coin.

Published on Mar 13, 2019 (1:05 min.)