VIDEO: THE LEGENDARY STEPHEN HAWKING DIES AT 76 LEAVING ONLY THE LEGACY OF HIS DISCCOVERIES

After years of defying the odds that the doctors had given him, Stephen Hawking passed away in his Cambridge home peacefully on Wednesday at the age of 76. His contribution to research on black holes and relativity led to many discoveries and wrote several scientific books including “A Brief History of Time”. 

Stephen Hawking will be remembered for his fighting spirit after being diagnosed with a rare motor neurone disease, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, that left him wheelchair bound and speaking through a voice synthesiser. His children, Lucy, Robert and Tim Hawking released a statement saying: "We are deeply saddened that our beloved father passed away today. He was a great scientist and an extraordinary man whose work and legacy will live on for many years. They praised his "courage and persistence" and said his "brilliance and humour" inspired people across the world. "He once said, 'It would not be much of a universe if it wasn't home to the people you love.' We will miss him forever."

His greatest academic achievements include:

He was the first man to set out a theory of cosmology as a union of relativity and quantum mechanics.

He made the discovery that black holes leak energy and fade to nothing, known currently ad Hawking radiation.

He worked with Sir Roger Penrose and demonstrated that Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity that denotes that time and space have a beginning in the Big Bang and end in black holes.

Outside of academics, he made appearances on several TV shows including The Big Bang Theory, The Simpsons and Red Dwarf. Eddie Redmayne recently portrayed him in the movie, “The Theory of everything” and paid tribute to him saying: "We have lost a truly beautiful mind, an astonishing scientist and the funniest man I have ever had the pleasure to meet. My love and thoughts are with his extraordinary family."

He serves as an inspiration to everyone and serves as proof that disabilities don’t stop people from living their life to the fullest.