Tech & Biz

Stephen Hawking Will Recover From Chest Infection

by Rob Walker | April 21, 2009 at 05:19 am

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World-famous physicist Stephen Hawking has been hospitalized for a chest infection, but his family says they expect him to recover fully. Hawking was planning a trip to Waterloo Ontario to give a lecture and check out the Perimeter Institute.

There have been rumours that Hawking may leave Cambridge University in England and come to work in Waterloo. Perimeter staff still hope that Hawking will be able to make the trip to Canada this summer.

Hawking, 67, suffers from a disease that damages the motor neurons in his brain and spinal cord, and belongs to the same family of diseases as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's disease. He uses a wheelchair and speaks with the aid of a voice synthesizer.
Hawking developed symptoms of the disease in the 1960s but has survived for decades with it and has, during that time, been one of the leading contributors to astrophysics, particularly with his work on black holes and his investigations into the origins of the universe.