The herald of one of the finest minds in the world, Stephen Hawking, passed away Wednesday at his home in Cambridge. He was 76.
Family members of the great physicist released a press statement Wednesday morning confirming his death added, “He was a great scientist and an extraordinary man whose work and legacy will live on for many years. His courage and persistence with his brilliance and humor inspired people across the world.”
His children, Lucy, Robert and Tim said they will miss his father forever.
At the age of just 21, in 1963, Stephen Hawking was diagnosed with motor neurone disease. Doctors then believed he may die in about two years, but the couragious scientists lived for more than half a century.
Fellow scientist Roger Penrose once said he was able to talk with Hawking even as his speech failed.
In 1970 both applied mathematics of black holes to the universe and showed a singularity lay in our distant past, which is the big bang theory. It was first major breakthrough for Hawking.
Penrose added further about Hawking that, “He thought he didn’t have long to live, and he really wanted to get as much as he could done at that time.”
Published in 1988, A Brief History of Time rocketed the scientist to stardom. His book made the Guinness Book of Records and stood as bestsellters list for 237 weeks on the Sunday Times. About 10 million copies were sold and the title was translated into forty different languages.
