ABSTRACT
Four days before Stephen Hawking’s 70th birthday on 8 January 2012, New Scientist published an exclusive interview with the man it called ‘one of the world’s greatest physicists’. Asked about the most exciting development in physics during his lifetime, Hawking said it was the confirmation of the Big Bang. Asked to name his biggest scientific blunder, he said it was his mistaken view that black holes destroyed the information they swallowed. Asked what he would do if he were a young physicist again, he said he would formulate a new idea that would open a novel field. Asked, finally, what he thought about most during the day, he said: ‘Women. They are a complete mystery’ (New Scientist 2012).
