Scientist who named the black hole dies aged 96

@StopthePropaganda

Yes, thank you for killing 200 000 innocent people...

@StopthePropaganda @StopthePropaganda By maajka

Instead of the half a million or so Allied soldiers, sailors and airmen trying to stop the war the Japanese started.

Oh, right....

@maajka

Seems you forgot that there was a War on and that if the US had to invade the Japanese main island that there would have been many, many , many more civilian casualties, not to mention many more American lives. My Uncle was a 1st Lt. and was assigned to lead a squad in the second wave of landing craft. To this day, he recounts that the day they dropped the bomb, he knelt down and kissed the sand he was standing on. (And he was not alone.)

Oh there's more, but lets stay on topic.

While these were the greats, I'm sure that there's another generation behind them thinking up the next big thing. It seems that the advances in Science and Technolgoy are occurring at a faster pace, but by more people...

If Wheeler was in his 20's today, what do you think he would be working on? Cosmology? Nanotech? Fusion Reactors? I mean there are so many options these days that didn't exist in the 40's and 50's.

@maajka

No, thank you, maajka! We'd have like to kill more, but we ran out of atomic bombs. By the time Korea came about, our politicians had turned into chickens. McArthur was right.

Hawkins the Physics Guru.

"Were it not for his disability, he'd likely as not be just another Cambridge professor."

Yeah those Cambridge physics professors are as common as muck.

A sad indictment

The general standard of the comments here are a fair indication of the fact that is must be relatively easy to be a 'superhero' in any intellectual persuit - the competition isn't that strong...

Despite the sad fact that humanity has just lost a great mind, most of the comments here are little more than ad-hominem attacks on either the man's character, his wartime activities or his contemporary colleagues ...

Why can't people either pay their respect or just keep their silence in face of a great man's passing - no matter what his nationality, politics or 'achievements' its still a sad day for the world.

@Jon Tocker

Tons of Americans know who Stephen Hawking is an respect him.

However, being BORN IN 1942, he doesn't really count as being from the same generation as wheeler. The topic is clearly "people who in the early 20th century figured out relativity and black holes and shit", and we enlightened and educated (compared to you) Americans know Stephen Hawking wasn't there.

Apparently you don't know anything about Stephen Hawking yourself, you just have a inferiority complex where you feel the need to turn any random discussion into an epic struggle to prove Americans aren't better.

Oh, and you got Hawking's name wrong too.

P.S.

I'm not saying Americans are better than anyone, just that you have a blatant inferiority complex.

@ maajka

It is estimated that 55 million people dies during WW2, so 200,000 seems small scale as a way of stopping even more deaths.

@maajka

"It is estimated that 55 million people dies during WW2, so 200,000 seems small scale as a way of stopping even more deaths."

More and more meaningless statistics!

Only goes to show you how Bush-minded you are even you stop to think of the Iraq war and non-existent WMD.

Mine is the one with an A-bomb n the detonator peeping out of the pocket!

@Jon Tocker

Speaking as a BRITISH ex-physicist I think that there is nothing particularly pro-american going on here. There really was a generation or two of physicists, not all (or even, perhaps. most) of whom were American, who achieved fantastic things, and Wheeler was probably the last of them still alive.

I'm not sure if they were genuinely smarter (they clearly were pretty smart) or if they were just lucky to have lived at the right time. I suspect mostly the latter - once the foundations of GR and QM existed then there were (relatively) easy wins to be had all over the place. Most of those have now been had, and we're left struggling with extremely complex and difficult stuff, while (I hope) we wait for the next breakthrough, which will trigger another wave of suoperheroes.

Hawking (and let's not forget Penrose) were simply too late in the day to have taken part in that wave.

@ Terence McCarthy

Read about the economic conditions and dishonour caused to Japanese people and state by the US government prior to WWII which precipitated Pearl Harbour (Which btw the American government had known was going to occur well in advance).

I won't celebrate the life of a man whose legacy is helping to make an atom bomb. What a real contribution to humanity!!

@Simon Ward

Mr Hawking wouldn't be 'just another Cambs prof' - he'd have the crappy book he wrote to build him up.

Don't get me wrong - the guy's good (certainly way out of my league), but you just try standing on his shoulders...

Titanic proportions, anyone?

OK, so we're in the vicinity of the ludicrous....

Now, someone tell me that 911 (oops - that's a phone number) - I mean the terrorist strike on the World Trade Centre - was a biggie.

Chicken feed to, say, the (illegal?) Vietnam war, or indeed the (definitely) illegal Iraq war. Oh, shit, I'm off again...

Not wishing to drag of tack...

Not to decry the sacrifices made on my behalf, but the West European allied forces loses were small compared to Russia. 20 million Russian troops died in WWII alone, just 'cos hated Uncle Joe was in charge, no one remembers their sacrifice.

Anyway... I must say that I too get the feeling that this world just seems to be getting a little more vacuous every time another of these great people leaves us. A great mind is no longer held up as something to aspire to, instead we get empty headed morons worshiping at the feet of even emptier headed celebrities. Guess what bimbo, those clothes, that make up, that car, your house, all designed by scientists working countless hours across the globe for your benefit!

Paris icon, the perfect example of my whinge!

American?

Hang on minute...Stephen Hawking is English?? Then why does he talk with an American accent?

Mine's the one with the target on the back...

@Dave et al.

"mr Hawking might be a bit of a physics guru"

Actually, while Mr. Hawkings' contributions in the form of popular science literature are undeniable, he has not really contributed much to physics as such. He is a gifted lecturer and a solid theoretical physicist, but nowhere even near Wheeler in his contributions.

Mine's the one with the wormholes...

British giants

Paul Dirac was a British giant from the same generation.

But for now: so long colourful, poetic, vibrant John Archibald Wheeler - assured a place in the history of physics.