Stephen Hawking’s 1966 thesis just crashed the University of Cambridge website
If you’ve ever been interested in checking out scientist Stephen Hawking’s doctoral thesis, you’re in luck. Well, maybe. The popular thesis, noted to be the “most requested item” at the University of Cambridge, was made available online for anyone to check out. The issues? Everyone checked it out, and the website crashed.
The thesis, called “Properties of Expanding Universes,” was written up back in 1966 and became available due to “Open Access Week,” which strives to raise the visibility of higher research. Word must have spread pretty quickly that Hawking’s thesis was available, because the website soon became a little overloaded.
"We have had a huge response to Professor Hawking's decision to make his PhD thesis publicly available to download, with almost 60,000 downloads in less than 24 hours," said a spokesman named Stuart Roberts. "As a result, visitors to our open access site may find that it is performing slower than usual and may at times be temporarily unavailable."
Still, is it worth the struggle? You bet.
Hawking is a theoretical physicist as well as the Director of Research at the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology, which is located within the University of Cambridge. The 75-year-old has reached celebrity status for his intelligence and passion for science, as well as for appearances on shows like The Simpsons, Futurama, and a 1993 episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Hawking himself is pretty excited that so many people are interested in checking it out.
"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!" he said in a statement.
We think it’s likely a must-read.
