Neuroscience

Misplaced molecules: New insights into the causes of dementia

A team of German and Belgian researchers has succeeded in gaining new insights into the causes of certain movement disorders and forms of dementia. Scientists including Bettina Schmid and Christian Haass from the German Center ...

Health

Does drinking hot tea in summer really cool you down?

I remember as a child, on the rare warm days that we used to get in Britain, my grandmother telling me to "have a cup of black tea … it will help cool you down". As a seven-year-old, this seemed like a crazy idea, especially ...

Other

Paralympics: Hawking defying science to open the Games

When Stephen Hawking was diagnosed with motor neurone disease aged 21, he was given just a few years to live, but on Wednesday the scientist was to help open the Paralympics at the age of 70.

Medical research

Cell scientists slow degeneration in motor neurone mice

Japanese stemcell scientists have succeeded in slowing the deterioration of mice with motor neurone disease, possibly paving the way for eventual human treatment, according to a new paper.

Other

Researcher gives subjects their voice

Stephen Hawking and a 9-​​year-​​old girl with a speech dis­order most likely use the same syn­thetic voice. It's called Per­fect Paul and it's easy to under­stand, espe­cially in acousti­cally chaotic envi­ron­ments ...

Stephen Hawking

Stephen William Hawking, CH, CBE, FRS, FRSA (born 8 January 1942) is a British theoretical physicist. Hawking is the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge (but intends to retire from this post in 2009), a Fellow of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge and the distinguished research chair at Waterloo's Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics. He is known for his contributions to the fields of cosmology and quantum gravity, especially in the context of black holes. He has also achieved success with works of popular science in which he discusses his own theories and cosmology in general; these include the runaway best seller A Brief History of Time, which stayed on the British Sunday Times bestsellers list for a record-breaking 237 weeks. Hawking has a neuro muscular dystrophy that is related to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a condition that has progressed over the years and has left him almost completely paralysed.

Hawking's key scientific works to date have included providing, with Roger Penrose, theorems regarding singularities in the framework of general relativity, and the theoretical prediction that black holes should emit radiation, which is today known as Hawking radiation (or sometimes as Bekenstein-Hawking radiation). He is a world-renowned theoretical physicist whose scientific career spans over 40 years. His books and public appearances have made him an academic celebrity. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and a lifetime member of the Pontifical Academy of Science.

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