Hawking hits the headlines in the US...

...for two very different reasons

Two agents of change

By Hamish Johnston

Cosmologist Stephen Hawking has been in the news recently for two very different reasons.

Yesterday he was awarded the US's highest civilian honour -- the Presidential Medal of Freedom -- by Barack Obama.

Obama described Hawking as "an agent of change", and someone who "saw an imperfect world and set about improving it, often overcoming great obstacles along the way".

I believe that Hawking is only the second physicist to receive the award, the first being Edward Teller -- "Father of the H-Bomb" and nemesis of Robert Oppenheimer.

Teller received his award from the previous president George W Bush, so perhaps physics is enjoying a period of grace in the White House?

Although Hawking received his award at the White House, he is British born and lives in the UK...facts that seem to have escaped a commentator in the US who has written:

"People such as scientist Stephen Hawking wouldn't have a chance in the U.K., where the National Health Service would say the life of this brilliant man, because of his physical handicaps, is essentially worthless."

I don't want to say that this is typical ...