2019-03-01ReadersDigest_AUNZ

76 | March• 2019

There’snorulethatsaysaguywhospendshisdaysformulat-

ing equations to explain black holes, unified field theory, and

other mind-bending mysteries of the universe can’t also be a

jokester.Still,itwasalwayssurprisingwhenphysicist Stephen

HawkingshoweduponTVandcrackedajoke.

BY MARC PEYSER

Brilliant

& FUNNY

Church declared scientific laws such

asgravitytobeheretical,sincethey

seemed to diminish God’s omnipo-

tence.“Interestingly,”thetextadds

puckishly, “Pope John [X XI] was

killed by the effects of the law of

gravityafewmonthslaterwhenthe

roofofhispalacefellinonhim.”

Leonard Mlodinow, Hawking’s co-

author onThe Grand Design,points

out that physics and humour are more

closely related than you’d expect.

Hawking was perhaps the world’s

most famous scientist when he died

in March last year at age 76. His 1988

book,ABriefHistoryofTime, sold

ten million copies and made him an

unlikely superstar even to people who

sweated through high school science.

Buthumourwasalwaysabigpart

of Hawking’s effort to bring physics

tothemasses.Inhis2010book,

The Grand Design,forinstance,he

recounts how, in 1277, the Catholic

Remembering

STEPHEN

HAWKING