This March 14 marks the fourth anniversary of the death in 2018, in Cambridge (England), of the famous English theoretical physicist, astrophysicist, cosmologist and science popularizer Stephen Hawking. He was 76 years old.
Considered one of the ten most intelligent people on the planet , with an IQ of 160, the author of 'A Brief History of Time' held the same chair of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge between 1979 and 2009 where Isaac taught.
His most important works consisted of contributing, together with Roger Penrose, theorems regarding space-time singularities within the framework of general relativity, and the theoretical prediction that black holes would emit radiation, which is known today as Hawking radiation.
Among his many reflections, here we have chosen ten that can summarize his thoughts and the vision he had of the world and the universe.
- "We are running out of space and the only spaces we can go to are other worlds."
- "We are just an advanced race of monkeys on a planet smaller than an average star. But we can understand the Universe. That makes us very special."
- "Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change."
- "There is no single image of reality."
- "I think that extraterrestrial life is quite common in the universe, although intelligent life is not so common. Some say that it has yet to appear on planet Earth."
- "If you understand the Universe, somehow you control it."
- "No one can resist the idea of a crippled genius."
"Although 9/11 was horrible, it did not threaten the survival of the human race, as nuclear weapons do."
- "The past, like the future, is indefinite and exists only as a spectrum of possibilities."
- "Life would be tragic if it weren't funny."