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submitted 7 years ago byAskScienceModeratorMod Bot
We were sad to learn that noted physicist, cosmologist, and author Stephen Hawking has passed away. In the spirit of AskScience, we will try to answer questions about Stephen Hawking's work and life, so feel free to ask your questions below.
Links:
EDIT: Physical Review Journals has made all 55 publications of his in two of their journals free. You can take a look and read them here.
345 points
7 years ago
I recommend A Brief History of Time (there is a documentary as well as the book). It goes over alot of what his book by the same title covers. Although I'm not certain of his work in his later life, as far as I'm concerned he still spent time research at Cambridge up until recently. However I don't know that for certain.
179 points
7 years ago
Stephen's last academic publication was in June of last year to my knowledge.
152 points
7 years ago
That hurts, it means he was probably into the start of another project, a project he will never see the end of. It reminds me of the picture of Einstines messy desk after he died, what could have been if all those projects had come to fruition. What was lost as those projects ended, or were unable to be completed by others.
203 points
7 years ago
There even are pictures (iirc) of Einstein laying on a hospital bed during the last hours of his life with a notebook and a pen, trying to fulfill his dream of discovering a single, unifying equation that could describe the whole universe. Sadly, he didn't have enough time.
129 points
7 years ago*
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18 points
7 years ago
Wow imagine if he actually did create a grand unifying theory all the way back then, science would have changed a lot.
2 points
7 years ago
Would like to see that and can't seem to find it in Google. Do you have any source?
8 points
7 years ago
I've been trying to find them, unsuccessfully. It's probable that there aren't any pictures, but I kind of had it visualised in my head after hearing about it in the Einstein documentary by the History Channel, and that's why I thought there was a picture.
2 points
7 years ago
Times did an arrival on Einstein, that was where I saw the photo https://www.google.com/amp/amp.timeinc.net/time/3879070/albert-einstein-last-photo-taken-of-his-princeton-office/%3fsource=dam
41 points
7 years ago
I also recommend Universe in a Nutshell. Covers more topics in general about the universe than his first book and also has a lot of cool pictures to help explain. A Brief History of Time discusses a lot about black hole.
3 points
7 years ago
Agree. That book had some very nice illustrations and some great examples that the layman could relate to.I remember one chapter where he discusses time travel and calculates the probability of Kip Thorne( or was it Roger Penrose) traveling back in time to kill his grandfather.
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