Day 906: Hawking 4

Here is another Stephen Hawking limerick by Laetitia.  This one is based on Hawking’s observation that academic smugness hinders advances in knowledge.  An example of this is that in the late nineteenth century, professors of physics discouraged students from entering the field because Newton, Maxwell and others had answered all the questions.  This illusion was shattered in the early twentieth century by discoveries that led to quantum mechanics and general and special relativity.

On knowledge, the views in profusion
Says Hawking, are fraught with confusion
For ‘tis not ignorance
That is mankind’s hindrance
But ‘tis knowledge’s self-smug illusion.

Day 905: Hawking 3

Laetitia continues a series of limericks about Stephen Hawking. For one who truly loves research, life in academia is fraught with distractions that often leave little time for it.  One of the few bright sides of Hawking’s debilitating condition is that he can spend full time on what he likes.

On the bright side, an ailment systemic
Says Hawking, who’s an academic
Absolves one of lectures
And boring conjectures
In committees, those prof banes endemic.

Day 904: Hawking 2

Laetitia is a great admirer of Stephen Hawking. Today’s limerick comes from a response he gave in an interview when asked what he would do if he had a time machine.

In a time machine, Hawking would go
Pay a visit to Marilyn Monroe
And just for good measure
It would be his pleasure
To drop in on Galileo.

Day 903: Hawking 1

Laetitia is a great admirer of Stephen Hawking who was diagnosed with a neurological disease at age 21 that left him debilitated and facing a short life expectancy.  He overcame the odds and went on to become one of the world’s great physicists.  At an interview by New Scientist at age 70 he was asked, “What to you think most about during the day?”  Similar to Solomon who in Proverbs disclaimed knowing “the way of a man with a maid,” Hawking’s answer was. “Women, They are a complete mystery.”  The quote inspired the limerick of the day.

“I know not the way of man with maid”
King Solomon’s said to have said,
And our wise man today
Hawking’s now had his say
And his mind runs along the same thread.