Can you hear me?

It has been a glorious time to be alive

and doing research in theoretical physics.

Our picture of the universe has changed a great deal

in the last 50 years and I'm happy if I have made a small contribution.

The fact that we humans, who are ourselves mere collections of fundamental particles of nature have been able to come this close to an

understanding of the laws governing us in our universe is a great triumph.

I want to share my excitement and enthusiasm about this west.

So remember to look up at the stars and not down at your feet.

Try to make sense of what you see and wonder about what makes the universe exist.

Be furious.

And however difficult life may seem,

there is always something you can do and succeed at. It matters that you don't just give up.

Thank you for listening.

Hello, on Wednesday, March the 14th, the world was shaken by the death of one of our greatest scientists,

Professor Stephen Hawking.

So this week's program is dedicated to celebrating his life and his work.

In the next hour we'll be exploring his scientific successes and hearing from the people he's inspired.

I'm Georgia Mills.

I'm Chris Smith and this is the Naked

Scientists. The Naked Scientists podcast is powered by UKfast.co.uk. UK. Martin Rees, he's the Astronomer Royal and he's going to help us to get to grips with

Stephen Hawking's earliest work.

...