The world has lost one of its leading lights following the death of Stephen Hawking at the age of 76.<br /><br /><br /><br />The world-famous physicist was told he had just two years to live at the age of 21 when he was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) which confined him to a wheelchair and left him unable to speak except through a voice synthesiser.<br /><br /><br /><br />And whilst Stephen managed to live much, much longer than his medically advised life expectancy, he finally lost his battle with his illness during the early hours of Wednesday morning.<br /><br /><br /><br />The scientist was best known for his work on black holes and relativity, and wrote several ground-breaking and popular science books including 'A Brief History of Time', which explained the mysteries of the universe in basic terms and sold over 10 million copies worldwide.<br /><br /><br /><br />RIP Stephen, you will be missed. <br /><br />
