[In Memory of Hawking] Besides Newton and Darwin, which other great figures in science and technology will be associated with Hawking?
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Hawking will be buried in Westminster Abbey, alongside Newton and Darwin, according to a report by Reference News on March 22. Foreign media say that Stephen Hawking’s ashes will be interred in London’s Westminster Abbey, next to Isaac Newton. It is the first time in 80 years that a scientist has received this honor. According to a report on the website of the UK’s Daily Telegraph on March 20, British actor Laurence Olivier was buried in Westminster Abbey in 1989. Professor Hawking will be the first famous figure to be buried here after him. Other celebrities who rest here include Darwin, Elizabeth I, Dickens, and Chaucer. Reports say the previous scientist to be buried here was the physicist and discoverer of the electron, Joseph John Thomson, who died in 1940. In 1937, Ernest Rutherford, a pioneer in nuclear physics, was also buried here. Professor Hawking passed away on March 14 this year at the age of 76. Despite fighting against motor neuron diseases for decades, he still became one of the most renowned scientists in this field of research. John Hall, Dean of Westminster Abbey, said, “It is only fitting that the ashes of Professor Stephen Hawking be buried in Westminster Abbey, alongside the graves of his distinguished colleagues in the scientific community.” ”
Rutherford: Discovered that atoms are composed of a nucleus and electrons； Joseph John Thomson: the discoverer of the electron. Layard: the proponent of uniformitarianism ； John Herschel: son of William Herschel, once served as president of the Royal Astronomical Society, and made significant contributions to photography ； William Thomson: also known as Lord Kelvin, a prominent figure in 19th-century classical physics and one of the proponents of the second law of thermodynamics. Rutherford and Joseph John Thomson were both buried with their ashes, which has been the practice since the 20th century. It seems that the threshold for scientists to be buried in Westminster Abbey is truly very high.
Some notable figures are buried elsewhere, but there is some kind of memorial plaque (or statue or window) in Westminster Abbey. On the ground in front of Newton’s statue and tomb, there are memorial plaques for Joseph John Thomson and Rutherford, with ashes beneath them. There are also memorial boards for the following individuals nearby; there are no ashes beneath them. Faraday: the discoverer of electromagnetic induction, a pioneer of the concept of electromagnetic fields ； Green: Introduced the Green function widely used in mathematics and physics ； Maxwell: The master of electromagnetism, who established the concept of electromagnetic fields ； Dirac: One of the founders of quantum mechanics, the creator of quantum electrodynamics, and the predictor of the positron. But the size of these commemorative slabs is all around 2 square feet. A windmill was also engraved on Green’s tablet, as that was his original specialty.
There are also the following famous scientists who are buried elsewhere but have memorial plaques in Westminster Abbey. Adams: Discoverer of Neptune ； Humphry Davy: First to isolate elements such as potassium and sodium; Faraday’s teacher ； Howard Florey: One of the inventors of penicillin, shared the 1945 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine ； Stephen Hales: The first measurement of blood pressure ； William Herschel: Discovered Uranus and its two moons, as well as Saturn’s two moons ； Hooke: The proponent of Hooke’s law on elasticity, Newton’s rival ； Joseph Dalton Hooker: botanist, explorer ； Joule: one of the discoverers of the law of conservation of energy ； William Ramsay: Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1904 for his research on inert gases ； Stokes: Mathematically, the proponent of Stokes’ theorem, and one of the developers of the Navier-Stokes equations in fluid dynamics ； John William Strutt: namely Lord Rayleigh, who received the 1904 Nobel Prize in Physics for discovering argon in collaboration with William Ramsay ； Wallace: He independently proposed the theory of evolution; his portrait is located near Darwin’s tomb ； Thomas Young: One of the key figures in wave optics, who made many contributions to science.
It’s out of reach; I don’t know how to comment.
What will happen when they are together?
Good topic, but poverty limits my imagination