Renowned physicist Stephen Hawking, who passed away in March, is set to be interred in Westminster Abbey in June. In a final show of the man's wit and dedication to the weirder realms of physics, it seems that time travelers are on the guest list.
Professor Hawking's work ran the gamut from the very beginning to the very end of the universe, as well as black holes, string theory, and the idea of the multiverse – although his final paper, published earlier this month, cut back on the number of possible simultaneous universes.
The possibility of time travel was also a key interest of Hawking's, and in 2009 he ran a quirky experiment to test the idea. As part of the Discovery Channel series Into The Universe with Stephen Hawking, the Professor threw a party for time travelers, only sending out the invitations after the fact. Although the invitation was open to anyone and gave specific details on the time and place, nobody showed up.
"I like simple experiments – and champagne," Hawking said at the time. "So I've combined two of my favorite things to see if time travel from the future to the past is possible."
Now it seems like Hawking is running the experiment one last time, with his memorial service next month apparently open to time travelers. Up to 1,000 spaces were released to the public, and as first noticed by London travel blogger IanVisits, the Date of Birth field goes all the way up to December 31, 2038.
We're not exactly holding our breath that any visitors from the future will show up (outside of smartass applicants who put down a future birth date for laughs), but it's a nice little nod to one of Professor Hawking's quirkiest experiments, and helps send off the man with his trademark sense of humor.
The memorial ceremony for Stephen Hawking will be held at Westminster Abbey in London on Friday June 15. The late professor's ashes are set to be interred alongside other great scientists like Sir Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin.
Source: Stephen Hawking Foundation
