Stephen Hawking admitted to hospital

By Luke Baker

LONDON (Reuters) - Physicist Stephen Hawking, the author of "A Brief History of Time" who is almost completely paralysed by motor neurone disease, has been urgently admitted to hospital, Cambridge University said on Monday.

Hawking, 67, was taken by ambulance to a local hospital in Cambridge, where he is a professor of applied mathematics and theoretical physics.

"Professor Hawking is very ill and has been taken by ambulance to Addenbrooke's Hospital," the university said.

A university spokesman said his condition was described as comfortable and that he would be kept in hospital overnight.

Hawking, who is only able to speak through a computer-generated voice synthesiser, had been ill for a couple of weeks, with his condition deteriorating since he returned from a trip to the United States at the weekend, a source said.

He cancelled an appearance at Arizona State University on April 6 due to a chest infection. A pre-recorded lecture was played to a science conference instead.

He has previously been treated for pneumonia and the source said it appeared his latest illness was related to the chest infection, although he stressed there was no diagnosis yet.

The head of Cambridge's applied mathematics department expressed hope that Hawking would recover.