Stephen Hawking’s sense of humour is all relativity

By Dan Buckley

By the time he died last March, the astrophysicist Stephen Hawking was convinced there was no God and no afterlife.

Yet, judging by the interest in his latest book, the giant of cosmology and pop culture has achieved an immortality of his own.

“I think the universe was spontaneously created out of nothing, according to the laws of science,” Hawking writes in his final book, Brief Answers To The Big Questions. “If you accept, as I do, that the laws of nature are fixed, then it doesn’t take long to ask: What role is there for God’?”

Shortly before his death, the Cambridge professor began compiling the answers to 10 fundamental questions he had been asked frequently by readers since the publication of his most celebrated book, A Brief

History of Time, in 1988.

His last book was published posthumously, with material drawn from that work, as well as interviews he gave.

While he denied the existence of God, Hawking was open to something more

far-fetched: Time travel. He grounds this notion on the so-called ‘M theory’, which suggests that the universe may contain seven hidden dimensions, in addition to the familiar four dimensions of space-time.

Rapid space travel and travel back in time can’t be ruled out, according to our present understanding,” he wrote. “Science fiction fans need not lose heart: There’s hope in M theory.

There is also hope that Hawking’s mischievous sense of humour (he once held a party for time travellers, but only sent out invitations afterwards) will survive him.

Dealing with a conundrum in Albert Einstein’s theory of special relativity, he explains it as a limerick:

There was a young lady of Wight,

Who travelled much faster than light,

She departed one day,

In a relative way,

And arrived on the previous night.