Sri Lanka, May 5 -- There is no reason why we should forget Stephen William Hawking who was born to eccentric parents. His father Frank was a medical practitioner specialising in tropical diseases and his mother Isobel was a Scottish doctor's daughter. They were quite wealthy and lived in a large house in St. Albans close to London. There were heaps of books everywhere in the house. The date he was born - January 8, 1942 - had some significance. The 300th death anniversary of Galileo fell on that date. Galileo was an Italian mathematician and astronomer who boldly said that the sun was the centre of our planetary system.

Hawking said Galileo was the first scientist who used his eyes both physically and figuratively. The scientific commun...