Stephen Hawking turns 70; too ill to attend celebration - Polidicks

[QUOTE][img]http://msnbcmedia2.msn.com/j/ap/stephen%20hawkings%20birthday--1590041811_v2.grid-5x2.jpg[/img] CAMBRIDGE, England — The world's most widely recognized living scientist Stephen Hawking was too ill to attend his 70th birthday celebrations Sunday but was hailed by colleagues as one of the most brilliant theoretical physicists since Einstein. Hawking, the author of the international bestseller "A Brief History of Time" in 1988, was honoured for his breakthroughs into theories of time and relativity, but also for his ability to make complex science accessible. At a birthday symposium for the scientist, who was diagnosed with motorneuron disease in 1963 and told he had barely two years to live, Britain's astronomer royal said Hawking had defied medical and scientific odds. The head of his elite Cambridge University said he had "changed our perception of the universe." "It's wonderful that we are celebrating Stephen's 70th birthday. It's a chance to thank him for the many insights he's given us about the universe, and ... for the inspiration he's offered to millions by achieving so much against all the odds," Astronomer Royal Martin Rees told an audience of scientists, students and reporters. Hawking had been due to speak Sunday at Cambridge, where as an undergraduate he first became fascinated with cosmology and the state of the universe, but colleagues said he was too poorly to attend. Hawking had recently been in hospital and was discharged on Jan. 6, Cambridge's Vice-Chancellor Leszek Borysiewicz said. "Unfortunately ... his recovery has not been fast enough for him to be with us today," Borysiewicz said. Hawking chose to call his speech at the State Of the Universe symposium "A Brief History of Mine." A spokeswoman for the university said the speech would still be delivered and Hawking would be watching the symposium from his home in Cambridge, where he is recovering. Almost completely paralyzed by a form of motor neuron disease called amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), which attacks the nerves that control muscles and gradually stops them functioning, Hawking is wheelchair-bound and uses a computerized voice synthesizer to speak. When as a bright and enthusiastic 21-year-old PhD student he was diagnosed with the disease, doctors told him he would probably not make it much beyond the age of 23. Yet in the almost half a century since, Hawking has broken new frontiers with research into theories of time, space, relativity and black holes. Rees and others have hailed him as a modern-day Einstein and said his work has shed light on the origin of the cosmos, the nature of time, and the ultimate fate of the universe. Currently the director of research at the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics at Cambridge, Hawking also founded the university's Center for Theoretical Cosmology and only recently retired from a post known as the Lucasian Professorship of Mathematics, a title once held by Isaac Newton. Despite having a mind that appears to work on a far higher level than most other human beings', Hawking has always made an effort to bring science to the masses. He has featured on the hit U.S. cartoon show The Simpsons several times, and in Star Trek as a hologram of himself. His voice, famous across the world, also featured in Pink Floyd's 1994 album Division Bell. "His ability to engage people in the process of scientific discovery through his books, lectures, and television programs has opened countless inquisitive minds to a universe full of possibilities," said Justin Rattner, chief technology officer at Intel, which provides Hawking's voice synthesizer. Hawking's health has deteriorated over the years and he now uses twitches in the muscles in his cheek to choose letters or words on his voice computer to allow him to communicate. This means his speech has slowed dramatically, to a current rate of around one word per minute. Kip Thorne, an acclaimed American theoretical physicist and long-standing Hawking collaborator who was also due to speak at the symposium, said Hawking's illness had both hampered him and pushed him to new limits. "When Stephen lost the use of his hands and could no longer manipulate equations on paper, he compensated by training himself to manipulate complex shapes and topologies in his mind at great speed," Thorne said. "That ability has enabled him to see the solutions to deep physics problems that nobody else could solve, and that he probably would not have been able to solve, himself, without his newfound skill."[/QUOTE] Source: [url]http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/45919031/ns/today-today_tech/t/hawking-turns-too-ill-attend-celebration/[/url] :(

I've actually read two of his books. They're surprisingly easy to read. I really recommend any fan of his to read them.

Poor guy - at least it says he's recovering.

Only person to come close to the same status as Einstein, imo. His books are easy to understand, which shows just how well he knows his stuff.

Hawking and Carl Sagan are my two favorite people ever.

This man is a champion.

i like the stephen hawking :(

I would like to take this opportunity to state that Stephen Hawking is a fucking winner, through and through.

He should get a brain interface, something that responds to his thinking. It doesn't even need to be a system that recognizes letters, just a simple up/down/select interface (which is doable) would go a lot faster then it goes now...

My best friend didn't know who he was, since I'm a ''nerdy person'' she asked if he was a Star Wars character. [B]GOD DAMN IT, WHO ARE MY FRIENDS!?[/B]

i just realized that all my hero's will die in my life time.... that not nice.

[QUOTE=Paravin;34127917]My best friend didn't know who he was, since I'm a ''nerdy person'' she asked if he was a Star Wars character. [B]GOD DAMN IT, WHO ARE MY FRIENDS!?[/B][/QUOTE] Don't get your panties on fire for it. Lots of people don't know who he is. Quite normal actually, but somewhat depressing because he should be known by everyone even if you aren't someone who follows science under a magnifying glass. I wish him good luck in his recovery.

If it's time for a time traveller from the year 2400 to come, its [B]now[/B], with a cure for ALS and a set to modify the DNA of a person to make him immortal. :( If this is archived and read in the year 2400, giving you this idea, could you also give me some nuclear-synthethised gold?

[QUOTE=dass;34128031]but somewhat depressing because he should be known by everyone even if you aren't someone who follows science under a magnifying glass.[/QUOTE] True, everyone knows who Einstein is, should be the same for Hawking.

Will it eventually get t0 the point were he can't breath any more? What does he do when his nose is blocked?

Hawking actually wasn't supposed to live past his 20s because of his disease, and he also almost died in the 80s from an illness. He is unbelievably lucky to even be alive today, and hopefully he is able to keep up his good work into old age. Everyone should read his books, "A Brief History of Time" and "The Grand Design". He has a talent for condensing extremely technical things down to something the average person can understand.

[QUOTE=krakadict;34128019]i just realized that all my hero's will die in my life time.... that not nice.[/QUOTE] Not if I kill you first!

While I respect the work of all scientists, I love the ones who make an effort to bring science to the masses in an understandable and interesting way. As someone who is about as scientifically illiterate as they come, I'm glad we have Hawkings and Tysons and Sagans to help out. (Note: I'm sure there are more, but those three have had the biggest impact on me personally)

I know it's stupid and offensive, but I love how he always has that half trollish 'problem?' look whenever you see a photo of him. It unintentionally makes him look like a total badass. [img]http://www.brianharrisphotographer.co.uk/Faces/Images/Stephen-Hawking.jpg[/img]

Its good that hes lived this long. But I think death will be a great comfort to him after all this time of being stuck like that.

I don't know why, but he looks incredibly smug (said in a good spirit) in the picture in the OP. [quote]"When Stephen lost the use of his hands and could no longer manipulate equations on paper, he compensated by training himself to manipulate complex shapes and topologies in his mind at great speed," Thorne said.[/quote] Stephen is incredible. "Challenge accepted" should have originated from this.

10,000,000,000,000,000 particles in the universe that we can observe. Your mama took the ugly ones and put them into one nerd.

[QUOTE=Jetblack357;34128731]Its good that hes lived this long. But I think death will be a great comfort to him after all this time of being stuck like that.[/QUOTE] I think it would be much more beneficial for him if he lived to a point were we could fix his problem.

[QUOTE=carcarcargo;34128997]I think it would be much more beneficial for him if he lived to a point were we could fix his problem.[/QUOTE] He's 70 and his muscles are fucked up beyond belief over the years with his condition. Even if his problem were to be fixed by the time he's 90 it'd take 20 years to un-fuck his body.

He better not die before or on my birthday or I'm going to be seriously depressed. Please stay alive Mr Hawkings.

[QUOTE=V12US;34128307]I know it's stupid and offensive, but I love how he always has that half trollish 'problem?' look whenever you see a photo of him. It unintentionally makes him look like a total badass. [img]http://www.brianharrisphotographer.co.uk/Faces/Images/Stephen-Hawking.jpg[/img][/QUOTE] On this one he looks like a rapist

I really want to see him and talk to him one day... ...before, you know...

I'm not the only one who thinks of Blutarch Mann when they see Stephen Hawking, right? [t]http://wiki.teamfortress.com/w/images/d/d3/EngineercomicNT08.jpg[/t] Damn shame that he can't even attend his own 70th birthday celebration. I can think of only a few things worse than that.

Sagan and Hawkins will never explore the universe. :(

[QUOTE=Ganerumo;34129252]On this one he looks like a rapist[/QUOTE] he'll enter your black hole