The vast breadth of knowledge that the human race has acquired over the last century is almost unimaginable. From the giants that put Bernoulli's Principle to work and gave us flight, to the men who split the atom and ushered in the Atomic Age, we have grown by leaps and bounds through the giant minds of incredible men and women. In the early hours of March 14th, otherwise known as Pi Day, Professor Stephen Hawking passed away. He was one of those great minded individuals who pushed the limits of our understanding of the world around us.Born exactly 300 years after the death of Galileo, and passing on Pi Day the anniversary of Albert Einstein's birth...it seems so fitting for a man who devoted his entire life to discovery and advancement of math and science. We remember the man who gave himself wholly to the cause of knowledge.
Stephen was just 22 years old when he was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) or Lou Gehrig's disease. He was only given a few years to live, but the Hawk lived on. Pushing the boundaries of knowledge regarding gravitational singularity theorems, general relativity, black holes and quantum mechanics.Whatever your opinions on Stephen Hawking were, one thing was certain, he never shied away from a challenge and his work has forever altered the course of human history, in regards to all things scientific. Where Einstein left off, Hawking picked up and carried the torch for 50 more years than he was supposed to.As he returned to the cosmos on this day, we don't remember the Director of Research at the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology within the University of Cambridge, or the renowned author that inspired a passion for science, or the man who discovered "Hawking Radiation"...no we remember him simply as a man who devoted his life to a cause he saw as worthy and gave his all unto that cause that all of humanity should be better for it.