Stephen Hawking, the greatest minds of generations, has died at the age 76.
Hawking suffered from Lou Gehrig's Disease (ALS) and was bound to a wheelchair, unable to speak, eat or do anything for himself. He was diagnosed at 21. The average lifespan after diagnosis is just five years, and his longevity was something Hawking never took for granted.
"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.
"I have been lucky that my condition has progressed more slowly than is often the case. But it shows that one need not lose hope."
The physicist's greatest discovery, in partnership with Roger Penrose, was that time and space began with a Big Bang and ended in a black hole. They did this by merging Einstein's theory of relativity with quantum theory. He also changed how we perceive black holes, finding radiation in them, proving they were not just black space, but a living entity that could die.
This is just a hint of what Hawking brought to the sciences.
But he didn't just live and breathe science. Hawking comes up in pop culture, most often in his guest appearances on The Big Bang Theory. He also said on his bucket list was to be a James Bond villain and he made theoretical physics cool using Zane Malik leaving One Direction as the foundation of the possibility of multiverses:
“It would not be beyond the realms of possibility that somewhere outside of our own universe lies another, different universe and, in that universe, Zayn is still in One Direction.”
Stephen Hawking was born on the 300th anniversary of Galileo's death and died on the anniversary of Albert Einstein's birth, also known as Pi Day. His contributions to the world changed us through knowledge and laughter. If his theories are correct, there is hope that in another universe there is a Stephen Hawking still making the world a better place.
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