Hawking in Space!

[Aggie]

http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/space/03/01/hawking.space.ap/index.html

Well, he'll be starting with zero-G flight, but he definitely deserves it!

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

Cool. Hawking is one of the very few people I admire greatly.

[goat starer]

in science terms maybe but he was a bit naughty with the old nurse!

When I first read this I thought this was an ill fated attempt to catch birds by means of hawks trained for the purpose and let loose on the prey in the vacuum of space.

Or to flog stuff to aliens door to door.

[Griffin NoName]

in science terms maybe but he was a bit naughty with the old nurse!

Just a bit!  And the pics on his walls.

I find it hard to admire him, other than for surviving a dreadful disease and keeping on working away. I often wonder how famous he would be if he was fit and healthy, and also whether his following isn't higher outside the UK. But I'll probably get the Thought Police knocking on my door for that.

[beagle]

Knock,knock.

I doubt he'd be a public celebrity but, speaking as a lapsed physicist, I think "The Large Scale Structure of Space-Time" (Hawking and Ellis) will be one of those classics (like Eddington's "The Internal constitution of the Stars") which people (ok, geeks) will still be reading in 50-100 years.

You're not going to forgive him those girly pictures are you.
Don't forget in the timescales he contemplates political correctness will be a momentary blip. Besides, they scare away the more fundamentalist American research students.

[Griffin NoName]

No I am NOT !  ...and it has scared away more than those you mention although one ought to be grateful for all plus points

I am sure plenty of people admire Eddington, and I'm sure Hawking deserves as much if not more admiration.... for his science by the people who admire other good/great scientists for their science (like geeks)

who is Ellis 

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

I guess I'm clueless to what "nurse" you're speaking of...

All I know about him, is his book "A Brief History of Time" and the many specials/docs he's been a part of.

I also saw the docudrama of his life, which was good as well.

[Griffin NoName]

The nurse is background colour.

A Brief History of Hawking:

He married already diagnosed. For a while all was fine. When he got more and more ill, his wife looked after him. Eventually he needed more care than that. A male friend of his wife helped a lot. Then eventually a nurse was needed. To cut a long story short, he ran off with the nurse (probably a bad choice of words there). Many people in Cambridge were shocked.

That's the simple version.

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

The nurse is background colour.

A Brief History of Hawking:

He married already diagnosed. For a while all was fine. When he got more and more ill, his wife looked after him. Eventually he needed more care than that. A male friend of his wife helped a lot. Then eventually a nurse was needed. To cut a long story short, he ran off with the nurse (probably a bad choice of words there). Many people in Cambridge were shocked.

That's the simple version.

Oh, that. 

I'd heard that his wife left HIM first in one version, and that his wife was unfaithful first in
another.

Personally, I don't care one way or another.

Genius is still genius, regardless of odious personal habits. 

[Griffin NoName]

Genius is still genius, regardless of odious personal habits. 

Genius is Genius regardless.

Attitude probably depends more on how close you are to the odious habits?

[beagle]

What beats me is why he's so keen to get into Earth orbit. It's a bit like Shakespeare being chuffed to get an article printed in his local paper.

(Didn't Einstein have  bit of a reputation for playing away too? Or was that myth? Whereas Newton could be trusted with a woman anywhere).

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

What beats me is why he's so keen to get into Earth orbit. It's a bit like Shakespeare being chuffed to get an article printed in his local paper.

(Didn't Einstein have  bit of a reputation for playing away too? Or was that myth? Whereas Newton could be trusted with a woman anywhere).

Well, if the movie IQ with Walter Matthau, Meg Ryan and Tim Robbins is based even loosely on reality, he did.  IQ on IMDB

I'd heard Einstein liked flirting-- but I'd not heard more than that.

As for Hawking wanting to see the curve of the Earth, who wouldn't?

No more "silly" than scattering James Doohan's ashes in orbit, for having played a character in a space opera in the 70's....

[Kiyoodle the Gambrinous]

A few years ago I've seen a theatre performance called "Mileva" (I think), about the life of Mileva Maric, Einstein's first wife.

If I can recall very well (it's been a few years after all), he wasn't really pictured as the perfect husband and father in it.


(and don't talk about the movie "IQ", that movie was just bad)