Scientists to 'hack' into brain of Stephen Hawking

Theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking has been confined to a wheelchair by a form of the motor-neuron disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) also known as Lou Gehrig's disease.

The 70-year-old physicist (shown above) lost the power of speech nearly 30 years ago and currently uses a computer to communicate but is losing that ability as the condition worsens.

Hawking is shown here at age 23 with his first wife Jane Wilde in 1965.

This photo shows Professor Hawking with his daughter Lucy at the NASA Lecture Series in 2008.

Hawking has been working with Philip Low, a professor at Stanford and inventor of the iBrain, a brain scanner that measures electrical activity.

"We'd like to find a way to bypass his body, pretty much hack his brain," said Prof Low.

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Stephen Hawking’s religious beliefs:

Hawking regards the concept of Heaven as a myth, believing that there is "no heaven or afterlife" and that such a notion is a "fairy story for people afraid of the dark."

He has suggested the existence of God was unnecessary to explain the origin of the universe.

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The Hawking 'brain hacking’ report is here.