Hawking and us

It was not just being the most famous physicist of his day that distinguished Stephen Hawking, but his accompanying ability to make us think for a while that we understood what he was up to. Indeed, we were all included in the best-known quotation from his works: a “complete theory” of the universe should “be understandable in broad principle by everyone”, and “it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason – for then we would know the mind of God”. A trust in humanity overlapped with Hawking’s daily courage in living with a kind of motor neurone disease. It was no dour duty, for he retained a sense of humour that tempted him to take part in and most recently in the sequel to

He knew the answer wasn’t 42 and his triumph was to make us sure we understood why.