Cambridge, England — Stephen Hawking, the star physicist who has survived a remarkable 38 years with motor neuron disease, almost didn't make it to a week of festivities marking his 60th birthday.
"I had an argument with a wall a few days after Christmas and the wall won," he explained Friday to an audience of about 400 scientists and friends gathered for a day of lectures celebrating his contribution to theoretical physics and cosmology.
Hawking, who is paralyzed and speaks with the aid of a computer voice synthesizer, suffered a broken right femur when he was thrown from his motorized wheelchair last month. He had been speeding down a narrow lane in the city to meet his wife, Elaine.
Opening his lecture, titled "60 Years in a Nutshell," an allusion to his best-selling book "The Universe in a Nutshell" Hawking told the audience: "It was nearly '59.97 Years in a Nutshell."'
Hawking made it to the entire week of events laid on by Cambridge University, including a birthday party Tuesday.
"It has been a glorious time to be alive and doing research in theoretical physics," Hawking said in his lecture. "Our picture of the universe has changed a great deal in the last 40 years and I am happy if I have made a small contribution."
"He's had more seminal creative ideas than many of his colleagues have produced in the last 50 years," said friend and fellow physicist Kip Thorne, a professor at California Institute of Technology.
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