Stephen Hawking, Great physicist, dead at the age of 76
Stephen Hawking: Visionary physicist dies aged 76 Stephen Hawking, the British physicist whose scientific achievements, decades-long battle with Lou Gehrig’s disease, and best-selling book “A Brief History of Time” helped make him the most celebrated scientist since Albert Einstein, died at his home in Cambridge, England, his family said in a statement early Wednesday. He was 76. Dr. Hawking, who was emeritus Lucasian professor of mathematics at Cambridge University, a chair once held by Sir Isaac Newton, was often called the most brilliant theoretical physicist since Einstein. His most important work — which brought together quantum mechanics, thermodynamics, and the general theory of relativity — marked a startling extension of Einstein’s greatest discovery, relativity. Dr. Hawking focused his research on what are now known as black holes, dying stars that have collapsed upon themselves, forming centers (“singularities”) of such density and wit