RIP Steven Hawking

Very sad to hear. He should have given himself a chance for a second life via cryonics.
 
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Good work, Mr Hawking, and good night.
 
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Sad news indeed. Rest in peace. Who'll pick up the mantle? Einstein -> Hawking ->.. ? It's always nice to have a proper science icon.
 
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Very sad to hear. He should have given himself a chance for a second life via cryonics.

Maybe he's making new discoveries now, like if there really is a God.
 
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Born on the anniversary of Galileo's death, and died on Einstein's birthday. What a loss, and has me wondering if we shall ever see his like again.
 
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Sad news indeed. Rest in peace. Who'll pick up the mantle? Einstein > Hawking ->.. ? It's always nice to have a proper science icon.

fixed that for you :D. I don't think even Stephen put himself in his category, but as a celebrity, the media often did. As I understand it, Black Holes were one of the many, many theories that Albert postulated, and Hawking was one of the people that proved that they were real and he expounded on it postulating on the so called "event horizon".
 
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In the end he had a good innings, surviving for many decades after they thought he would die. I can't imagine living like that, but just shows you what a strong will can accomplish. Not really aware of any other big names in physics these days - everything people do seems incremental - no *harumph* quantum leaps....
 
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Well, it's hard to measure the intelligence/genious, discoveries and also the impact on society as a whole. So I wouldn't weight these guys against each other.
DaVinci is someone you could put in the timeline before Einstein though. Wasn't into astrophysics though.

We still have public figures in astronomy / astrophysics, but they are more along the lines of Carl Sagan. There is Neil de Grasse Tyson who also made one of his recent interviews with Steven Hawking public:
https://www.facebook.com/StarTalkRadio/videos/2009998499014809/?fref=mentions

Then there is Elon Musk. While he is certainly no genious in that regard and also doesn't have a Dr or Prof title, he pushed the topic forward more than anyone else in recent years.

Luckily in Germany we still got good old Prof Dr Harald Lesch. Who btw also just released a video regarding Steven Hawking:
 
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RIP. Honestly, I thought he was "slipping" in last few years with some commentaries, but definitely one of most iconic figures in modern science.
 
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fixed that for you :D. I don't think even Stephen put himself in his category, but as a celebrity, the media often did. As I understand it, Black Holes were one of the many, many theories that Albert postulated, and Hawking was one of the people that proved that they were real and he expounded on it postulating on the so called "event horizon".

I wasn't really referring to the scientific impact. More along the lines of "some science dude the general public actually knows about". We need that. It would be a tragedy if we ended up in a world where only athletes, rock stars and people from reality shows are famous (and as a result, idolized).
 
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Ahh. Now I get it. :D

pibbur who was really puzzled and considered being offended.
 
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