The 50 m Stephen Hawking coin of the Royal Mint celebrates its legacy

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Stephen Hawking, cosmologist, theoretical physicist and science educator, passed away on March 14, 2018.
The Royal Mint celebrates its work and life with a collectible coin that sells for 10 pounds.
The younger son of Hawking said that he imagined that his father was reacting to the news with "one of his big smiles".

The Royal Mint of the United Kingdom issued a 50 pence coin commemorating the late physicist Stephen Hawking, who died nearly a year ago at the age of 76.

The collector's item, which is sold online at a price of 10 euros, represents the name of Stephen Hawking surrounded by lines forming concentric circles representing a black hole. Above his name appears on the piece the Bekenstein-Hawking formula, which describes the entropy of black holes and shows that the surface of a black hole grows as material is consumed. This also supports the idea that black holes are not completely black.

"It's such a beautiful way to remember him and his legacy," m said Lucy Hawking, Stephen Hawking's daughter, known for her work as a children's novelist and science educator. "It's a 2D surface that seems to have a 3D image – it's like you could fall into the black hole."

Edwina Ellis, coin designer, said that she "wanted to make a big black hole on the small room and wished it was still there to giggle at the thought."

"The initial inspiration was actually the description of black holes by Stephen Hawking," said Ellis. "It was not until after I realized that I had not used any graphic imagery of someone else because it was the only way I was doing it. had given. "

Edwina Ellis

This is not the first time that the Royal Mint commemorates scientists on the British currency: Sir Isaac Newton appears on a 50 pence coin and Charles Darwin on a 2 pound coin. Hawking's younger son, Tim, said that he thought his father would have been happy to have been celebrated in this way.

"He would have been delighted to know that there was a coin commemorating him as well as his work," said Tim Hawking, Stephen's youngest son. "I think I have a very clear sense of him with one of his big smiles."

After spending decades working on what he called "the big question: where did the universe come from?", Hawking is remembered not just for his many scientific contributions to cosmology, to general relativity and quantum gravity, but also for his warm and always curious personality that the whole world has known through his role as a popular science educator.

Hawking spoke to Big Think there are years on the future of humanity.

"I am an optimist, if we can avoid a disaster for the next two centuries, our species should be safe, as we are expanding into space."

For Hawking, this will require not to fall prey to our worst trends.

"Our genetic code still contains the selfish and aggressive instincts that were a survival advantage in the past.It will be quite difficult to avoid a disaster in the next hundred years, not to mention the thousands or millions of others. Our only chance for long-term survival is not to stay introverted on planet Earth, but to spread in space.We have made remarkable progress over the last hundred years, but if we want to continue beyond Beyond the next hundred years, our future is in space. "

Abandon the Earth or face extinction