Famed Physicist Stephen Hawking Joins Facebook

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Status Update: Stephen Hawking has finally joined the world's largest social network. (Image credit: Flickr/NASA HQ PHOTO.)

World-renowned physicist and author Stephen Hawking has joined Facebook.

Hawking became a member of the popular social networking site on Oct. 7, just weeks before the upcoming release of "The Theory of Everything," a biographical film about Hawking's relationship with his first wife Jane. The film will premiere in the United States on Nov. 7.

Hawking, who suffers from a motor neuron disease related to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), is best known for his work on gravitational singularities and black hole radiation. [Creative Genius: The World's Greatest Minds]

“I have always wondered what makes the universe exist. Time and space may forever be a mystery, but that has not stopped my pursuit," the astrophysicist wrote in his first post on Facebook. "Our connections to one another have grown infinitely and now that I have the chance, I’m eager to share this journey with you. Be curious, I know I will forever be."

The Facebook page is maintained by Hawking's team, and posts from the astrophysicist himself are signed as "SH," according to the site.

The page includes photos of Hawking at various events and institutions, including one inside the Large Hadron Collider at the CERN particle physics laboratory, located near Geneva on the French-Swiss border. A video on the site shows Hawking's children taking the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. Hawking did not take part himself. "Because I had pneumonia last year, it would not be wise for me to have a bucket of cold water poured over me," he said in the video.

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Tanya Lewis
Tanya Lewis
Staff Writer
Tanya was a staff writer for Live Science from 2013 to 2015, covering a wide array of topics, ranging from neuroscience to robotics to strange/cute animals. She received a graduate certificate in science communication from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and a bachelor of science in biomedical engineering from Brown University. She has previously written for Science News, Wired, The Santa Cruz Sentinel, the radio show Big Picture Science and other places. Tanya has lived on a tropical island, witnessed volcanic eruptions and flown in zero gravity (without losing her lunch!). To find out what her latest project is, you can visit her website.