TEHRAN, March 14 - The world-renowned British scientist, Stephen Hawking, has passed away at age 76, a family spokesman says.
TEHRAN,Young Journalists Club (YJC) - Hawking was one of the brightest stars in the firmament of science, whose insights shaped modern cosmology and inspired global audiences in the millions.
Hawking’s formidable mind probed the very limits of human understanding both in the vastness of space and in the bizarre sub-molecular world of quantum theory, which he said could predict what happens at the beginning and end of time.
His work ranged from the origins of the universe itself, through the tantalizing prospect of time travel to the mysteries of space’s all-consuming black holes.
But the power of his intellect contrasted cruelly with the weakness of his body, ravaged by the wasting motor neuron disease he contracted at the age of 21.
Hawking was confined for most of his life to a wheelchair. As his condition worsened, he had to resort to speaking through a voice synthesizer and communicating by moving his eyebrows.
The disease spurred him to work harder but also contributed to the collapse of his two marriages, he wrote in a 2013 memoir “My Brief History.”
In the book he related how he was first diagnosed: “I felt it was very unfair - why should this happen to me,” he wrote.
Source: Press TV, Reuters