After Stephen Hawking’s PhD thesis was made public, the Cambridge University website crashed




FILE - In this file photo dated Wednesday Aug. 29, 2012, British physicist, Professor Stephen Hawking speaks during the Opening Ceremony for the 2012 Paralympics in London, Wednesday Aug. 29, 2012. Hawking was interviewed on British TV Monday May 30, 2016, saying UK should stay inside the European Union because of its support for research, and he cannot fathom the popularity of presumptive candidate for U.S. president Donald Trump, saying he "seems to appeal to the lowest common denominator.” (AP Photo/Matt Dunham, FILE)
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The University of Cambridge recently made Stephen Hawking’s PhD thesis publicly available via their open access repository, and sent Physics enthusiasts across the globe into raptures.

Hawking’s paper, which was written over 50 years ago and made public by Cambridge with his permission, garnered so much interest that shortly after the paper went live, the university’s website reportedly crashed for a brief period.

“By making my PhD thesis open access, I hope to inspire people around the world to look up at the stars and not down at their feet; to wonder about our place in the universe and to try and make sense of the cosmos,” Hawking said in a statement after it was announced that his thesis would be made public. “Anyone, anywhere in the world should have free, unhindered access to not just my research, but to the research of every great and inquiring mind across the spectrum of human understanding.”

Since Cambridge University announced making Hawking’s paper public, over 400,000 people have reportedly viewed the university’s repository page.

Hawking wrote his thesis, titled Properties of Expanding Universes in 1966, as part of his studies for his second degree, after his first-class bachelors degree in physics from Oxford.

Fancy a bit of light reading? We’ve put ‘s 1966 PhD thesis online to celebrate http://ow.ly/albb30g3GdL 

Step inside the mind of the young Stephen Hawking as his PhD thesis goes online for first time

The 1966 doctoral thesis by the world’s most recognisable scientist is the most requested item in Apollo with the catalogue record alone attracting hundreds of views per month. In just the past few…

cam.ac.uk

“It’s wonderful to hear how many people have already shown an interest in downloading my thesis – hopefully they won’t be disappointed now that they finally have access to it,” Hawking previously said in a statement.

Stephen Hawking documentary Expedition New Earth
Hawking wrote his thesis, titled Properties of Expanding Universes, in 1966 Getty Images/Jemal Countess

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