Stephen Hawking has been taken to hospital for an “urgent” admission. Cambridge University, where Hawking is a professor, described him as “very ill”.

An unnamed source told Reuters the illness had not been diagnosed but appeared to be a chest infection which Hawking had been experiencing for a couple of weeks. The source says Hawking’s condition worsened after returning from to England from the United States at the weekend. Whilst in the US, Hawking had to cancel an appearance due to illness.

The only official word comes from Cambridge University, which said, “Professor Hawking is very ill and has been taken by ambulance to Addenbrooke’s Hospital.” That hospital is located in Cambridge.

It’s reported that Hawking has previously been treated for pneumonia. It’s not know if the conditions are either related to, or exacerbated by, his suffering from Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. Better known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease, it’s a motor neuron condition which means the brain is unable to send messages to muscles.

Hawking has a form of the disease known as ’slow-progressive’ which has allowed him to live with it for more than four decades, while most sufferers die within a few years. However, the condition means Hawking is confined to a wheelchair and communicates through a voice synthesizer activated by his fingers.

Best known for the book ‘A Brief History of Time’, Hawkings has spent much of his life researching the role of physics in the universe. He has attempted to find a solution to apparent contradictions between Einstein’s general theory of relativity (which involves time as the fourth dimension, and the way it affects gravity) and quantum theory (which deals with the behavior of atoms). This work has involved theories about the properties of black holes and the way the universe appeared after the Big Bang.

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Entry was posted on Monday, April 20th, 2009 at 2:39 pm under Science and technology.

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