Physicist Stephen Baxter hospitalized Monday in ` ` very ill '' condition . Year - old suffers from degenerative disease known as Lou Gehrig 's Disease . Wheelchair-bound Hawking is perhaps most famous for `` A Brief History of Time , '' which explored the origins of the universe in layman 's terms . Hawking is considered by many to be world 's greatest living mathematician .
Physicist Stephen Baxter hospitalized Monday in ` ` very ill '' condition . Year - old suffers from degenerative disease known as Lou Gehrig 's Disease . Hawking is considered by many to be world 's greatest living mathematician .