Professor Stephen Hawking on Sept 19, 2013. Rex Features via AP Images
Stephen Hawking is exploring yet another bizarre and fascinating part of our universe that stretches the very idea of reality: Facebook.
On Friday, Hawking posted his first Facebook status update. “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 renowned British physicist wrote Friday morning. “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.”
Hawking’s page has been live since the beginning of October, but this is the first we’ve heard from—dare we say?—Facebook’s smartest new member. And though Hawking, who has ALS, may have missed the frenzy of the Ice Bucket Challenge, he didn’t miss the opportunity to post his own Ice Bucket Challenge video, which he filmed earlier this year, on his page. “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, through his speech-generating device. “But my children, Robert, Lucy, and Tim gallantly volunteered to take the challenge for me.”
So far, Hawking’s page has garnered more than 900,000 likes, but that number is likely to exponentially grow when a biopic about Hawking’s life called The Theory of Everything premieres in the coming weeks. Starring Eddie Redmayne, it’s based on a book by Hawking’s first wife, Jane, called “Travelling to Infinity: My Life with Stephen.”
Hawking doesn’t strike us as the type to join Facebook just to cash in on the buzz surrounding the movie, though. He generates a substantial amount of buzz on his own. Hawking fans from Pakistan to Canada flooded his page with welcome messages and notes about what an inspiration the 72-year-old scientist is.
In one day, Hawking also achieved the ultimate status symbol on Facebook today—a Like from Mark Zuckerberg, himself. Not bad for a newbie.
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