RIP Stephen Hawking

It's amazing how quickly bad news circulates the globe these days. At the first hint of bad news it is there staring at you on a news feed somewhere. before you know it, even Wikipedia has been updated, usually before the news has had chance to sink in.

Most of my inspirations, I will use that word rather that heroes, have been science fiction writers. But there are a few scientists out there that have had a big impact on me. I guess the first physics book I read, other than a textbook at school, was A Brief History Of Time by Stephen Hawking. The book was everywhere in the late eighties and a book I read for kicks, rather than studying for my degree. Over the years I have read a few more of his books including The Universe In A Nutshell and A Briefer History of Time.

Physics was not really my thing in school, but over the decades I have become more and more interested in it. Most of this is down to Mr Hawking. More than physics, he was a force for good in the world and never missed the opportunity for a moment of fun it would appear. So it is sad to hear that he has died today. I can think of few really great minds in my lifetime and he is really the only one who springs to mind when I think about the word genius.