Hawking and the Brexit Big Bang Theory
The death of renowned scientist and mathematician Professor Stephen Hawking on March 14 sparked an outpouring of tributes from around the world.
Nowhere was this more apparent than in China, where regard for his contribution to the fields of theoretical physics and cosmology are held in particular esteem.
In fact, as Newsweek put it last week, Hawking loved China and China loved him right back. Such was his superstar status in the country that Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang paid tribute to Hawking, describing him as a “fighter for science who arduously battled illness” and praised him for “strongly insisting” on going to the Great Wall during a trip in 2006, despite using a wheelchair.
The scientist’s death also sparked a fresh wave of interest in his books across China, with the Hunan Science and Technology Press saying it had received orders for more than 1 million copies of Hawking’s works within a day of his demise.
Internationally acclaimed
for his 1998 book A Brief History of Time: From the Big
Bang to Black Holes, Hawking discusses the laws that predict how things work in the universe, cosmology and how we view the universe — all pitched at a nonscientific level.
Besides science, Hawking had many opinions on more down-to-earth matters — such as the impact of Brexit and its potentially devastating effect on Britain’s healthcare system and scientific research funding in the United Kingdom.
The professor took no prisoners when applying his second Big Bang Theory to Brexit. Indeed, Hawking’s razor-sharp wit was much in evidence at the 2016 Pride of Britain Awards, when he accepted a lifetime achievement award from British Prime Minister Theresa May, with the joke: “I deal with tough mathematical questions every day, but please don’t ask me to help with Brexit.”
His quip prompted a standing ovation, but Hawking was also making a serious political point about the complexities and pitfalls of the consequences of leaving the European Union.
In subsequent interviews and speeches, the scientist slammed the path the British government is pursuing regarding Brexit.
A year ago he told CNN in an interview: “It shouldn’t be a hard Brexit as the right wing of the Conservative party wants. It would leave us inward-looking”.
Famously declaring Brexit as a “disaster for science”, he worried that it would thwart scientific exchanges between the EU and the UK, rendering the latter “culturally isolated”.
Hawking, who had motor neurone disease, was equally vociferous in his defense of Britain’s National Health Service, of which he said: “I wouldn’t be here today if it were not for the NHS.”
Hawking’s defiant opposition to health service cuts, underfunding by stealth and increasing moves toward privatization even prompted him to join a judicial review against the British Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt in the courts last December.
This brings to mind UK cabinet minister Michael Gove’s by-now infamous quote that “people in this country have had enough of experts” in the lead-up to the EU vote in 2016, which seemed to be an attack on the scientific community itself.
In fact, the opposite has never been further from the truth. And with Hawking’s passing, it’s clear there has never been a greater need for free-thinkers in today’s posttruth political landscape.