Timeless

At 21, many believe their life is just beginning. But at that tender age in 1963, Stephen Hawking received devastating news. He was diagnosed with a rare motor neurone diseaseThe condition causes neurons in the brain to break down. This causes muscles to slowly weaken making everyday tasks difficult or impossible., and doctors gave him just two years to live. In the end, he defied their expectations by an extraordinary 53 years - becoming one of the world's most celebrated scientists in the process. He died yesterday aged 76.

While the world mourns his passing, for Hawking it was the very prospect of an early death which made his ambitions come to life. In his memoir he claimed that before his illness he was "bored with life". Only after the diagnosis did he suddenly realise the many "worthwhile things" he could do.

And many amazing things he did. His science career brought swift success, as he produced pioneering research on black holes and cosmologyThe science of the origin and development of the universe. - all propelled by his huge, yet unerringly simple, ambition: "A complete understanding of the universe."

Prizes soon followed, including a fellowship at the Royal Society, and a prestigious Cambridge professorship once held by Isaac Newton. Yet all the while he battled his terrible disease which put him in a wheelchair and robbed him of his speech.

It also gave him great difficulty writing, yet it was a book, A Brief History of TimeFirst published in 1988, it has since sold over 10 million copies., that secured his stardom. Spending an unprecedented 237 weeks on the Sunday Times bestseller list and translated into 40 languages, it introduced a mass audience to the most fundamental questions about the universe.

He returned to this audience time and again, delivering public lectures on theoretical physics with trademark wit and clarity (not to mention comical cameos on shows like The Simpsons and The Big Bang Theory).

But through all his personal triumphs and tribulations, he was also a husband and a father to three children. And as news of his death broke, Lucy, Robert and Tim released a statement quoting one of their father's most cherished thoughts: "He once said: 'It would not be much of a universe if it wasn't home to the people you love.'"

What can we learn from the remarkable life of Stephen Hawking?

His life is about triumph over adversity, some argue. Hawking's achievements stand alone. But that he did all those things while fighting a crippling disability is the true triumph. It shows that we can all overcome the direst circumstances if we only believe we can.

It is more subtle than that, others say. It is not that he overcame difficulty, but that adversity made him who he was - spurring him on to work harder, think more clearly and make the best of the time he had. The message is not that any hardship can be defeated, but that even the worst circumstances can produce wonderful things.