Just learnt from the BBC News channel that my favourite scientist and man of great humour, has died, peacefully, aged 76 years.
As a sign of feelings by the general public, it may be interesting to note that the Motor Neurone disease Association website has crashed, owing to the huge number of donations this morning.
John
Immense respect for this man who lived a torturous existence for 50 years, and did it with Grace. Must have been hell for that mind to be trapped in that body.
Absolutely amazing he lived as long as he did with that disease. I’m sorry.
He will be greatly missed. But I can only dream of leaving a legacy such as his. A full and beautiful life.
I just hope our next generation is getting everything they need so that we can have a new person to take his place. our little world is a little dimmer today for his loss.
Agreed. I believe it was his mind that allowed (forced, if you will) his body to survive so long with ALS – 90% lose their fight within 10 years.
Wish he had had time to further his work on conditions before the Big Bang, as he discussed in his final interview Neil dGT – like daVinci and Einstein, he worked right up to the end, striving to understand.
Pace, Professor.
Lou Gehrig was a physical specimen and 36 years old when he was diagnosed in June 1939, he died in June 1941.
Hawkins was given a couple years to live when he was first diagnosed and brutally punished for surviving. How he then outperformed the rest of his field is stuff of fiction.
“We are just an advanced breed of monkeys on a minor planet of a very average star. But we can understand the Universe. That makes us something very special.”
We need more like him, now more than ever.
RIP Sir. Fly free.
Reminds me – If you haven’t watched “Genius by Stephen Hawking” (2016) on PBS, its well worth a binge-watching session.
Side-door-to-fame story: Whilst taking astrophysics in grad school, I emailed my prof a question, which he passed along to some colleagues. Imagine my surprise when one of the CCs on the reply was Hawking. 
Just imagine his mind with a healthy body 
Maybe not as productive. He was in a position of not being encouraged to distraction by much of the physical world and thus spent far more time in his mind.
Think about how much time we spend interacting with the world and making decisions and evaluations that we would not if we were confined to a nearly immobile box and our physical needs were managed by someone else.
Not easy way to live in any sense, but freed of many physical distractions the mind is free to do more.
My dad goes to an ALS clinic - he has a related disease that’s like ALS-lite - and is participating in a research study to try to figure out why ALS progresses at different rates in different people. Because they really have no idea. I think most people live like two and a half years after diagnosis, but then 5% live 20+ years. And then there are some complete outliers like Hawking who live like 50 years.
Yes, the longevity curve has a very long tail. Best wishes for your dad.
Oh, longevity curve – that’s an elegant way to explain what I was trying to describe. My dad is doing very well, thanks! He just ordered a pretty sweet wheelchair. And recommends getting the nonfatal version of things any time you have the option 
Yeah, I sincerely hope it doesn’t progress further for your dad, and it sounds like he has an excellent attitude about it. (Which helps.)
Maybe. His mind will be a mystery.
Indeed. My dad had the fatal one. It was just horrible. I can’t even.
Very sorry. 
Yes, I watched my Mother-in-law slowly fade over 2 years. She lived with us and my Wife an RN cared for her. I’m quite sure I wouldn’t have handled it with such grace.
I feel sure Professor Hawking was ready to shed that body and would have looked death square in the eye.
I saw this image by a photographer (Richard Calmes), and it instantly reminded me of my Wife’s Mother.
She had no fear.
Dance for the Reaper - and put him in his place.
I met Dr. Hawking at a lecture in college. I understood maybe 5% of what he was talking about. I’m not totally convinced the physics professors understood it all either. Just absolutely brilliant. He truly inherited the mantle from Dr. Einstein and given the current wave of anti-intellectualism I worry I hope for science’s state there is someone to inherit from Hawking, …
In his own words…
“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.”
“However bad life may seem, there is always something you can do, and succeed at. While there’s life, there is hope.”
“Women. They are a complete mystery.”
“Remember to look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Try to make sense of what you see and wonder about what makes the universe exist. Be curious. And however difficult life may seem, there is always something you can do and succeed at.”
