Tributes have been paid to renowned physicist Prof Stephen Hawking in a Westminster Abbey memorial service. British actor Benedict Cumberbatch, who played Hawking in a BBC drama, and astronaut Tim Peake were among those giving readings at the ceremony.
People gathered by the hundreds in the English city of Cambridge Saturday to pay their last respects to famed British scientist Stephen Hawking as his remains arrived at St. Mary the Great church where some 500 guests had been invited to the private funeral.
Stephen Hawking, whose brilliant mind ranged across time and space though his body was paralyzed by disease, died early Wednesday, a University of Cambridge spokesman said. He was 76 years old. Hawking died peacefully at his home in Cambridge, England.
Heaven is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark, the eminent British theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking said in an interview. Hawking, 69, was expected to die within a few years of being diagnosed with degenerative motor neurone disease at the age of 21, but became one of the world's most famous scientists with the publication of his 1988 book A Brief History of Time.
The human race must look to outer space within the next century or it will become extinct, Professor Stephen Hawking has warned, according to an article published by the Daily Telegraph credited to Richard Alleyne, Science Correspondent.