Stephen Hawking, the world-renowned physicist and author, is reportedly "very ill" and being treated at the hospital. Says University of Cambridge spokesman Greg Hayman:
“Professor Hawking is very ill.... He has been suffering from a chest infection for a number of weeks which has meant he has had to cancel a number of appointments.” Hawking was flown back to the U.K. from the U.S. at the weekend, Hayman said. He was taken to hospital at lunch time today [Bloomberg].
Hawking has
remained active despite being diagnosed at 21 with ALS, (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), an incurable degenerative disorder also known as Lou Gehrig's disease. For some years, Hawking has been almost entirely paralyzed, and he communicates through an electronic voice synthesizer activated by his fingers [AP].
The 67-year-old Hawking became a scientific celebrity with his 1988 book "A Brief History of Time," which attempted to explained cosmology to the lay public; ...
