Needless to say, it's not light reading. Hawking used the expansion of the universe to challenge an existing gravitational theory (there's no way galaxies could form as a result of early perturbations, he argued) and provide a model of gravitational radiation and expansion that shows space-time singularities are "inevitable."

Whether or not you take a look, there was plenty of pent-up demand. Cambridge University said the paper was the "most-requested" work for its open repository, receiving "hundreds" of requests. It'll also help open the floodgates. All Cambridge graduates will have to offer digital copies of their theses from now on, and they're being encouraged to make them public. Hawking's move might give them the confidence boost they need -- they'll know there's nothing to fear by disclosing their work.