Slashdot Log In
Steven Hawking Considering Move To Canada
Posted by
CmdrTaco
on Wed Jul 16, 2008 10:43 AM
from the oh-canada dept.
from the oh-canada dept.
thepacketmaster learned of "...the possibility of Steven Hawking moving to Waterloo in Canada: 'A report out of Britain suggests Stephen Hawking is considering an invitation to come work at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics....But he's also being encouraged to move to Ontario by his University of Cambridge colleague Neil Turok, the mathematical physicist who will take over as Perimeter's executive director on Oct. 1. Perimeter confirmed last night that it has made a standing offer to Hawking...Turok is leaving Cambridge after failing to persuade university authorities, research councils and sponsors to spend $40 million...By comparison, Waterloo's Perimeter Institute has about $600 million in funding...The addition of Hawking to Perimeter's staff of top physicists would be a major coup for the research institute, founded in 1999 by Mike Lazaridis, founder and co-CEO of Research In Motion, which makes the BlackBerry.'"
Related Stories
[+]
Stephen Hawking Thinks Aliens Likely 579 comments
OMNIpotusCOM writes "Noted astrophysicist Stephen Hawking thinks that alien life is likely, albeit primitive, according to a lecture delivered at George Washington University in honor of NASA's 50th anniversary. It begs the question of if we need to consider a Prime Directive before exploring or sending signals too far into the depths of space."
[+]
News: Stephen Hawking Turned Down Knighthood 201 comments
schliz writes "Professor Stephen Hawking has revealed that he turned down the offer of a knighthood over 10 years ago. The scientist has released correspondence showing that he was approached with the offer of a knighthood but refused it on principle. Professor Hawking has also revealed correspondence showing harsh criticism of what he sees as the UK government's mismanagement of science funding. He is particularly critical of the merger of the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council and the Council for the Central Laboratory of the Research Councils."
[+]
Stephen Hawking Going To Canada 204 comments
thepacketmaster writes "A previous Slashdot article I posted mentioned the possibility of Stephen Hawking coming to Canada. The Toronto Star now reports that he has accepted the position. Hawking will hold the title of distinguished research chair at the prestigious Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics."
This discussion has been archived.
No new comments can be posted.
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
Full
Abbreviated
Hidden
Loading... please wait.
Didn't... (Score:5, Insightful)
all the top phycisits start leaving Germany when things started going downhill?
Re:Didn't... (Score:5, Funny)
And the physicists left too!
Parent
Re:but the grammar nazi's stayed (Score:5, Funny)
He corrected himself and earned double +5s, smart on his part if you ask me.
Meanwhile, I expect this post to receive a -1 offtopic rating. Though it could go insightful. Moderator demigods are strange sometimes.
Parent
Re:yes but there was a difference. (Score:5, Funny)
I guess you don't know where Cambridge is. Must be an American.
Parent
Re:yes but there was a difference. (Score:5, Insightful)
You laugh... but I've known people who live in Maine that couldn't find Canada on a map. I could understand from the deep south, where Canada is a mythical land of igloos and Eskimos, but Maine?!? There's parts of Canada that are further south than Maine, and there was a time when that state was part of Canada, for crying out loud....
Parent
Re:yes but there was a difference. (Score:5, Funny)
Real Mainiacs can be identified by their large feet evolved for crossing snow drifts, know where they are relative to Canada just by sniffing the air, and can find the nearest unguarded border crossings using a mutated recessive gene. A Real Maniac, most importantly though, will pretend to look at the map you shove at them and give you a fiendishly crafted answer with the sole intended result of making you go back to New York and never returning. An answer like "What's Canada?" for instance...
Parent
Re:yes but there was a difference. (Score:5, Informative)
I think I counted once, there are 12 states with territory of a higher latitude than the southernmost point in Canada. The strange part is that Vancouver has much milder winters than Pelee Island, despite having a more northern latitude by over 650mi.
And actually the southernmost territory in Canada is Middle Island, just south of Pelee Island (home to some nice wineries), which is south of Point Pelee, the southernmost point of the Canadian mainland.
And there are far more Canadians with residences in southern US than in Maine, aka Snowbirds.
I was worried about getting modded OT but the Cannuck posts are scoring better than the Hawking ones!
Parent
Re:yes but there was a difference. (Score:5, Funny)
If someone mentions any American town I could probably name the state it is in.
Springfield. :)
Parent
Re:yes but there was a difference. (Score:5, Informative)
To be fair, we have a Cambridge on this side of the pond, in Massachusetts, and it's home to a rather prestigious institution of higher learning. If one were unfamiliar with the work or background Stephen Hawking, it would be an innocent mistake to confuse our Cambridge (town) with your Cambridge (university).
Parent
Re:yes but there was a difference. (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:yes but there was a difference. (Score:5, Informative)
It is possible to synthesize British accents. Hawking has had many opportunities to upgrade his speech software. He chooses to continue to use DECtalk even though it is outdated because it is "his voice" now.
Parent
Re:yes but there was a difference. (Score:5, Informative)
Parent
Re:yes but there was a difference. (Score:4, Funny)
Parent
Re:yes but there was a difference. (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re:yes but there was a difference. (Score:5, Insightful)
Not collecting stamps gives you time for a real hobby, just like atheism gives you time to do real science.
Now, I don't say you can't be religious as a scientist. Actually I know quite a few very good scientists that believe in God. Usually, though, they take the Bible as a guideline for being a "good person", not a book telling you how the scientific parts of the world work. They understand the Bible as a guideline to live a good life, and quite frankly, it is a good book as such. Don't kill, don't steal, take a day off per week so you don't run into a burnout, and generally don't do what you wouldn't want others to do to you. That's a pretty good guideline to work with, if you ask me.
Frankly, I wonder how many of those that want to take the Bible all literally and insist in it being the all encompassing truth really want to use it to live a better life (for themselves, but even more for those around them), and how many just want to use it as a tool to wield power over others. It's been used for that purpose far too often. I'd say, more often than for the "better person" goals...
Parent
Re:yes but there was a difference. (Score:5, Insightful)
Only if you ignore the parts that say you should stone people, and eradicate whole villages if one of the members doesn't believe in the Bible's god, retain slaves, and that giving up your virgin daughter to a rape gang is preferable to turning over a foreign man to them. Those are just a few examples...
Parent
Re:yes but there was a difference. (Score:4, Interesting)
Parent
Shame (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:yes but there was a difference. (Score:5, Insightful)
Historically, Muslim regimes have been very favorable to the science. That's no so much the case today, but blaming current Muslim regimes on the Koran is like blaming the industrial revolution on Christianity. It's a stretch, at best.
Parent
Actually.... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Actually.... (Score:4, Funny)
Parent
I wonder (Score:4, Funny)
Re:I wonder (Score:4, Funny)
Parent
Fringe Benefits (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Fringe Benefits (Score:5, Funny)
I will not stand by and take this slander against my home and native land. I'll have you know that Canada has hundreds of buildings and has had them for decades now!
Parent
Its our (Score:5, Funny)
Its our national healthcare system.
Re:Its our (Score:4, Informative)
Indeed. For those who don't get the joke, the UK's health care system is probably (depending of course on the metric) better than Canada's.
Parent
Like Freeman, but more not theoretical (Score:5, Funny)
Mr. Turok, mathematical physicist and dinosaur hunter, to you, pal.
Re:Like Freeman, but more not theoretical (Score:4, Funny)
Parent
Re:Like Freeman, but more not theoretical (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
The voice (Score:5, Funny)
Can we get the computerized voice with a Canadian accent, eh?
no! (Score:5, Funny)
Don't you get it? If you die in Canada you die in real life! [xkcd.com]
British? (Score:5, Funny)
They see me rollin (Score:5, Funny)
Phew! (Score:4, Funny)
No more traffic jams on Silver Street.
In other news... (Score:5, Funny)
Stephen Hawking changed his mind about what he wanted to eat for lunch.
"At first I thought I wanted fish," said Mr. Hawkings, "but then I decided I did not want fish. I eventually went with spaghetti."
There is much debate in science-related blogs as well as in academia about the significance of this change.
New voicebox. (Score:3, Funny)
Public Lectures (Score:5, Informative)
The Institute has most of them available for offline viewing and reading [perimeterinstitute.ca]. Maybe they could get Stephen Hawking one day.
Heavy Duty Keyboard On Order For Speeches... (Score:5, Funny)
Waterloo is getting there... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Waterloo is getting there... (Score:5, Funny)
There's lots of movies with references to Waterloo, though they generally deal with this Napoleon guy, I guess he was a bigshot there.
Parent
"steVen"? (Score:5, Informative)
He's not coming to Canada (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2008/07/16/hawking-perimeter.html [www.cbc.ca]
The University of Cambridge has poured cold water on reports its most famous physicist might be coming to Canada to work, saying Wednesday Stephen Hawking "has no plans" to leave.
A report in the Daily Telegraph in the U.K. said Hawking was contemplating joining his colleague Neil Turok at Waterloo, Ont.'s Perimeter Institute. The South African-born cosmologist Turok, 49, is leaving Cambridge to take over the role of executive director at the institute, which was founded in 2000 by Research in Motion co-founder Mike Lazaridis and is devoted to the study of theoretical physics.
Cambridge's statement called the report "unfounded speculation."
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Probability states the worlds brightest people are probably in China or India. However due to political structure it may be harder to find these people in those countries. (less so in India)
Re:NOOoOOOO!!! (Score:5, Insightful)
Your ideas are shaped not just by your capabilities, but the ideas and interactions you came up with when you were growing up.
I believe that there is a significant percentage of population (probably around 10%) that could be just as bright as the top people in sciences, but they just took a different path. They didn't get the encouragements, or maybe they just didn't meet a friend in the 5th grade that had the same interest as them.
There is more to whom we become than some political structure. The ultimate you is shaped MUCH closer to your personal life than even the city hall.
Parent
Re:NOOoOOOO!!! (Score:5, Interesting)
The same could be said for countries as a whole. One would expect to find a greater proportion of scientists in an industrialized country over an agrarian one, or over a nation that has only recently industrialized.
I am not trying to make a nationalistic or xenophobic argument against India or China, because I know for a fact that they have lots of brilliant people, I am just trying to delve deeper into the notion that a larger national population equals a larger population of [whatever else].
Parent
Re:who in their right mind (Score:4, Insightful)
I mean, really, the university isn't even the best in Ontario, let alone the country
For math and physics it sure is the best, especially with the perimeter institute there now. Sounds like they sent you a nice rejection letter :)
Parent
Re:who in their right mind (Score:5, Insightful)
I am a grad student in physics at waterloo (phd) and my female counterparts do not get paid anymore than me from the uni. Where the heck did you hear this?
Are you sure that you aren't just talking about 3rd party scholarships that are only available to women? The amount from you get from the actual university is the same for men and women.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Sounds like a headline from a 007 movie (Score:5, Funny)
"World's leading physicist moves to the university in the middle of nowhere"
I wonder...
Parent