Wormholes, Eh? Hawking Threatens to Move to Canada

One of the world's most famous scientists might be on the move. Stephen Hawking, expert on time, black holes, and quantum gravity, is reportedly considering flying the coop at Britain's Cambridge University after 46 years and moving to Canada. Money is at issue: Hawking has failed to secure a $40 million expansion to the Cambridge Centre for Theoretical Cosmology. Meanwhile, the Perimeter Institute in Ontario, Hawking's potential destination, is rolling in more dough—about [strike]$600[/strike] $300 million worth of public and private donations. This story didn't come out of nowhere, either. Last month the famous physicist ripped the British government for cutting £80 million—about $160 million—in research funding, saying it would hurt the U.K.'s global reputation, not to mention put many physics labs out of business. Still, it's an unusual circumstance: Disgruntled liberals are usually the people threatening to move to Canada, not eminent scientists. Correction: The Telegraph originally reported the Perimeter Institute's funding as £300 million, which we converted to $600 million (American). In fact, it should have been $300 million (Canadian), which equals about the same amount in American currency. Image: NASA