Hawking had a rare early-onset, slow-progressing form of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), commonly known as motor neurone disease in the UK and as Lou Gehrig's Disease in the US.

Ceres is the largest object in the asteroid belt that lies between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. It is the 33rd-largest known body in the Solar System.

Alexander Vilenkin introduced the idea of quantum creation of the universe from a quantum vacuum.

Ada E. Yonath was the first woman from the Middle East to win a Nobel prize in the sciences.

Rachel Carson's most well-known book, Silent Spring, described the harmful effects of pesticides on the environment. In 2012, the book was designated a National Historic Chemical Landmark by the American Chemical Society for its role in the development of the modern environmental movement.

One joule in everyday life represents approximately the energy required to lift a medium-sized tomato (100 g) 1 meter vertically from the surface of the Earth.

Spectroscopy is the study of the interaction between matter and electromagnetic radiation.

The electricity of a lightning strike does not have a temperature, per se, but the air around a bolt of lightning can reach a temperature of 54,000 degrees Fahrenheit, which is 5 times hotter than the surface of the sun which is a mere 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit. The central region of the sun, however, is much hotter than lightning at 27 million degrees Fahrenheit.

Tetranitratoxycarbon is a hypothetically-possible molecule, unknown to science until ten-year-old Clara Lazen (a fifth-grader in Kansas City, Missouri) assembled a model of it in her science class in 2012. As an oxygen-rich compound of carbon and nitrogen, it is similar to nitroglycerin and is predicted to have explosive properties.

Kinetic energy is the energy an object possesses due to its motion. It is defined as the work needed to accelerate a body of a given mass from rest to its stated velocity.