Doctors expected him to live for only two more years. Hawking was driven to Wagner, but not the bottle, when he was diagnosed with motor neurone disease in 1963 at the age of 21. I have so much I want to do first Stephen Hawking The Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield lamented on Twitter that “Genius is so fine and rare”, while Theresa May noted Hawking’s “courage, humour and determination to get the most from life was an inspiration.” The US rock band Foo Fighters was more succinct, calling Hawking a “fucking legend.” I’m not afraid of death, but I’m in no hurry to die. His personality remained amazingly unwarped by his frustrations,” said Lord Rees, the astronomer royal, who praised Hawking’s half century of work as an “inspiring crescendo of achievement.” He added: “Few, if any, of Einstein’s successors have done more to deepen our insights into gravity, space and time.” “Stephen was far from being the archetypal unworldy or nerdish scientist. “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 for ever.”įor fellow scientists and loved ones, it was Hawking’s intuition and wicked sense of humour that marked him out as much as the fierce intellect that, coupled with his illness, came to symbolise the unbounded possibilities of the human mind. His courage and persistence with his brilliance and humour inspired people across the world. He was a great scientist and an extraordinary man whose work and legacy will live on for many years. In a statement that confirmed his death at home in Cambridge, Hawking’s children said: “We are deeply saddened that our beloved father passed away today.

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