Leaping the Abyss, Gregory Benford,
Reason Online
The debilitating effects of Lou Gehrig’s disease over the past 20
years have done little to mute Stephen Hawking’s passionate pursuit
of the big questions, writes Gregory Benford in Reason
Online. The brilliant British physicist has a new book out,
The Universe in a Nutshell, and, at 60, continues to work, write,
and teach. In a wide-ranging conversation, Hawking muses on the
nature of time, the continuing search for a ‘unified theory’ of
physics, and the ‘cosmological’ wonder of Marilyn Monroe. ‘Stephen
has faced daunting physical constrictions with a renewed attack on
the large issues, on great sweeps of space and time,’ Benford
writes. ‘Daily he struggles without much fuss against the narrowing
that is perhaps the worst element of infirmity. I recalled him rapt
with Marilyn, still deeply engaged with life, holding firmly
against tides of entropy.’
–Craig Cox
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