A Tribute to Stephen Hawking, Who Died Today at 76 Years Old

Renowned physicist Stephen Hawking died early this morning at 76 years old, leaving many of us very sad but also very inspired by his life, especially considering he was told he only had two years to live all the way back in 1963, at 22 years old, due to motor neurone disease. He beat the odds in a big way, bringing us all a lot of science and laughter over the years, and this is our small way of paying tribute.

A statement today from his children, Lucy, Robert and Tim, said: “We are deeply saddened that our beloved father passed away today. He was a great scientist and an extraordinary man whose work and legacy will live on for many years. His courage and persistence with his brilliance and humour inspired people across the world.”

In the above video, you can watch Hawking sing Monty Python’s “Galaxy Song” to help put things in perspective. His children’s statement continued, “He once said, ‘It would not be much of a universe if it wasn’t home to the people you love.’ We will miss him forever.”

Hawking has made plenty of fun appearances like this over the years, including cameos on Star Trek: The Next Generation (yes, as himself), The Simpsons, Futurama, and more. You can also get some extra Hawking by checking out The Theory of Everything, his recent biopic, which was all around a pretty good movie. (You can also watch Jane Hawking talk about the movie here.) Or, you can play some Science Kombat, in which Hawking is a playable fighter.

He also recently appeared in a charity comedy video in which he auditioned new voices, was involved in an initiative to send tiny space probes to far away locations at a significant fraction of the speed of light, and warned us about aliens killing us, AI killing us (more than once), climate change killing us, and us killing us—although those last two are basically the same. Now, it’s up to the rest of us to do something about it.

He also once did something we all kind of want to do in the back of our minds, but we’re not all exactly famous enough in the science world for it to mean anything: He threw a party for time travelers.

Farewell, Stephen Hawking.

(image: Jemal Countess / Stringer)

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Dan Van Winkle

Dan Van Winkle (he) is an editor and manager who has been working in digital media since 2013, first at now-defunct Geekosystem (RIP), and then at The Mary Sue starting in 2014, specializing in gaming, science, and technology. Outside of his professional experience, he has been active in video game modding and development as a hobby for many years. He lives in North Carolina with Lisa Brown (his wife) and Liz Lemon (their dog), both of whom are the best, and you will regret challenging him at Smash Bros.

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