The 80th anniversary of his birth is today, January 7, and Google is commemorating the occasion with a Doodle created by Matthew Cruickshank in his honor.
Professor Hawking was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) at the age of 21, but he was already widely regarded as one of the greatest minds of the 21st century.
The scientist, who was given a meager prognosis of two years to live, instead outlived everyone’s expectations by a factor of five. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that the revolutionary physicist’s final words were just as profound as his entire life.
What Were Stephen Hawking’s Final Words?
After his passing, Stephen Hawking’s loved ones finished his book, Brief Answers To The Big Questions. The most frequently asked questions posed to Hawking during his time on Earth have been addressed.
‘There is no God,’ he wrote as the book’s final sentence. The cosmos has no leader. Hawking’s denial of the existence of a deity was not unprecedented.
He posed the following question during an appearance on Genius of Britain: “Is the way the universe began chosen by God for reasons we can’t understand, or was it determined by a law of science?” The latter is what I have faith in.
“You can call the laws of science ‘God’ if you like, but it wouldn’t be a personal God that you could meet and ask questions of.” His final letter to readers ended on a more positive note. In the last chapter, he tries to address the central question of the book: “How do we shape the future?”His response was, “Keep your gaze on the heavens, not the ground.”
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Hawking fed hundreds of homeless people in Cambridge, his hometown, at a lavish Easter dinner that he personally paid for.
The Easter lunch hosted by the charity FoodCycle at Wesley Methodist Church was paid for by a donation from his family on the day of his funeral.
There was a note left on each table that read, “Today’s lunch is a gift from Stephen. According to Hawking The world lost an icon of human perseverance and curiosity early Wednesday morning in Cambridge, England. When physicist and best-selling author Stephen W. Hawking passed away. He was a professor at Cambridge University. He was 76.
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He was confined to a wheelchair and required a voice synthesizer to communicate due to his illness.His three children, Lucy, Robert, and Tim released a statement in which they expressed their grief over their father’s passing.
His work and legacy will be remembered for generations to come. “He was a great scientist and an extraordinary man. His “bravery and perseverance” was lauded, and people were moved by his “brilliance and humor,” they said.
Once said, “The universe wouldn’t be much of a place if it weren’t populated by the people you care about.” He will be deeply missed. Prof. Hawking was a fellow at Gonville and Caius College in Cambridge, where a book of condolences has been opened.
His life and marriage to his first wife, Jane. Have been the subject of several fictionalized depictions on film and television. Most recently by Oscar winner Eddie Redmayne in The Theory of Everything.
The actor remembered him by saying, “We have lost a truly beautiful mind. An astonishing scientist, and the funniest man I have ever had the pleasure of meeting.”
Prof. Hawking was “a true inspiration for me and for millions of people around the world,” according to Benedict Cumberbatch, who portrayed him in a BBC drama.
Final Words
Though he never said so publicly, Professor Stephen Hawking was widely assumed to have an IQ of 160. Only 0.003% of the population has such a high IQ, placing those with such a score in the “genius” category.