Date published: 2009/06/26
The Cambridge News says:
Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time is the contemporary publication most likely to have the same impact for future generations as Darwin's On the Origin of Species, according to a Cambridge poll.
The online survey, run by Cambridge University, asked staff, students and alumni which contemporary scientist most deserves to be honoured in 200 years, and which science publication of the past half-century should be remembered in 150 years.
How embarrassing can it get? The Cambridge News does not say how the survey was conducted, and in particular how this question was asked, but anyone who thinks that A Brief History of Time will even be remembered in 50 years, never mind 150, is sadly deluded. A Brief History of Time had no new science in it, and it did not change anyone's world view. It was just a "popular" science book, where "popular" means "lots of people bought it" rather than "it explained science to non-scientists" (since it was notoriously one of those books that nobody read, it was so incomprehensible). To rank it with On the Origin of Species is ridiculous.
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