AP Photo provided by Royal Papworth Hospital shows Stephen Hawking's ventilator which has been donated by his family to be used to treat patients with coronavirus.

'The Simpsons', 'Star Trek': When Stephen Hawking Charmed The Telly







Autoplay Autoplay 1 of 6 A Legendary Mind Stephen Hawking, a prolific theoretical physicist, would have celebrated his 77th birthday today. The cosmologist and author of 'A Brief History Of Time', who was diagnosed with motor neuron disease at 21, spent his life trying to resolve the mysteries of the universe. However, while Professor Hawking, who passed away on March 14 last year, was busy deciphering the basics of black holes and tackled time travel, he enjoyed a brief, small-screen career as well. Here's a round-up of 5 times when Professor Hawking made an appearance on TV shows. 'Star Trek: The Next Generation' 'Star Trek' fans fondly called Hawking 'Trekkie'. In 1993, he starred in the season six finale of 'Star Trek: The Next Generation'. On the show, Hawking was shown playing a game of poker against scientists like Albert Einstein and Sir Isaac Newton.



Also See: Stephen Hawking Leaves Behind His Legacy In The Form Of Books



(Image: www.imdb.com) 'The Simpsons' Hawking first made an appearance on 'The Simpsons' in 1999, with the signature yellow skin. Starring in the episode 'They Saved Lisa’s Brain' in Season 10, Hawking is even shown pondering over Homer's idea of a 'doughnut-shaped universe'. 'Futurama' Professor Hawking also appeared in multiple episodes of 'Futurama' in 2000. In one of the episodes, he loses his body and is left being a head stored in a not-so-ordinary jar. The rocket-powered jar allowed Hawking to shoot lasers from eyes to intimidate and stun people around him.



(Image: www.imdb.com)

'The Big Bang Theory' Hawking studied the big bang theory so the makers of the show thought it was appropriate to name a sitcom after it in 2012. The show's Sheldon Cooper, a theoretical physicist, is known to worship Hawking. From dressing as him on Halloween to celebrating his first birthday party, Cooper could just not stop thinking about Hawking.



To honour the character who was such a huge fan, Hawking made multiple appearances on this sitcom. In one episode, he even pointed out an 'arithmetic mistake' in Cooper's thesis, causing the know-it-all to faint.



(Image: The Big Bang Theory/Instagram)

LONDON: The family of Stephen Hawking , one of the world's best-known theoretical physicists, has donated his ventilator to a National Health Service (NHS) hospital in Cambridge to add to the additional supplies required during the coronavirus pandemic to treat the infected patients.The 76-year-old physicist, who had motor neurone disease, used the ventilator constantly from 2013 until his death in 2018.His daughter, 49-year-old Lucy Hawking , said her father had received "brilliant, dedicated and compassionate" medical care at the Royal Papworth Hospital in Cambridge, also his home, and therefore his relatives were delighted to be able to play a small part in the battle against the coronavirus."As a ventilated patient, Royal Papworth was incredibly important to my father and helped him through some very difficult times. We realised that it would be at the forefront of the COVID-19 epidemic and got in touch with some of our old friends there to ask if we could help," Lucy said."After our father passed away, we returned all the medical equipment he used that belonged to the NHS but there were some items which he bought for himself. We are now passing them to the NHS in the hope they will help in the fight against COVID-19," she said.The hospital said the ventilator has now been added to its fleet after an inspection by the hospital's clinical engineering team.Mike Davies, clinical director for respiratory medicine at Papworth Hospital, said: "It was lovely to hear from the Hawking family again and we are so grateful for them for donating this equipment."We are now extremely busy caring for patients who are critically ill with COVID-19 and the support we are receiving from patients, their families and the local community means a great deal."The Royal Papworth Hospital said it has expanded its critical care department to more than double its usual size due to the increasing number of coronavirus admissions.