miscellany

A Long-Awaited Taste of Outer Space
Stephen Hawking Takes a Buoyant Ride on a Zero-Gravity Flight

This made me laugh out loud and my eyes tear up with joy for Dr. Hawking. What a wonderful bit of news; I'm so happy for him.

snippet:

During the free-floating portions of the flight, Hawking was without his voice synthesizer. He was to communicate yes by raising his eyebrows and no by pulling his mouth to one side.

The fears proved unwarranted.

After one zero-gravity ride, crew members asked if he wanted to go again. Hawking dramatically stretched his eyebrows upward in an apparently emphatic yes.

"He was grinning the entire time," Diamandis said.