Stephen Hawking's fitting final role: How he literally became the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

One thing has gone unmentioned in all the eulogies for Professor Stephen Hawking, who died this week at the age of 76. Sure, he was a physics legend whose calculations forever changed how we view time, the universe and everything. 

But he was also a hoopy frood who really knew where his towel was.

In other words, Hawking was a big fan of Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy— the hilarious five-book "trilogy" and movie that began life as a BBC radio show. And there could be no more fitting tribute to his intergalactic greatness than for Hawking to become the voice of the all-knowing Guide itself.  Read more...