Over the weekend Professor Stephen Hawking reached the grand age of three score years and ten. Many of the greatest minds in theoretical physics and cosmology attended "The State of the Universe" symposium at Cambridge University to discuss the very latest theoretical insights and pay tribute to Stephen Hawking's contribution to this field of scientific endeavour.
Alok Jha was at the meeting and spoke to many of Hawking's peers and former students including Cambridge professor of theoretical physics Gary Gibbons, and to Hawking's biographer Kitty Ferguson.
The show includes excerpts from Hawking's "State of the Universe" address, in which he recalls his childhood in post-war London and his deeply unpromising school career (during which he was nevertheless nicknamed "Einstein").
The Guardian's science correspondent Ian Sample spoke to Peter Stringfellow, who describes Hawking as his "all time hero" and once had the pleasure of chatting to him at his eponymous nightclub in London's Covent Garden. Stringfellow reveals that he has met film stars, rock stars and presidents, "but this was the man who took my breath away".
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10 January 2012 2:07PM
Happy Birthday Professor Hawking.
10 January 2012 3:20PM
I would love to know which time of the day Prof Hawking thinks is optimal for learning by reading.
(personally I find the morning preferable)
10 January 2012 8:20PM
OK, so all the formulas and models are wrong, must be some imaginary "dark force" and "dark material". And he says God is a fairy-tale. He'll know soon enough.
11 January 2012 2:48AM
Just shows that a mind can still be sharp at 70 even in a badly damaged body.
11 January 2012 10:56AM
Sounds like a threat! He won't know anything. He'll be dead.
11 January 2012 1:10PM
Which "god" are you talking about?
I would hazard a guess that even you believe that the thousands of other gods, which you don't happen to believe in, are "fairy tales".
Some of us just go the extra yard and cross the other one off too!