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If the key to comedy is in the timing, then you'd think a man without the ability to speak would be at a severe disadvantage. But as Stephen Hawking demonstrated on "Last Week Tonight" on Sunday, he has a higher understanding of time and timing than most humans. Hawking, the much-honored theoretical physicist, is almost completely paralyzed due to the effects of a motor neuron disease related to ALS. The 72-year-old travels in a wheelchair and can only communicate through a computer device the generates speech for him with minimal inflection. Not exactly someone who you'd think would be able to handle sarcasm, banter and teasing well. But you'd be completely wrong. Hawking is no...
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If the key to comedy is in the timing, then you'd think a man without the ability to speak would be at a severe disadvantage. But as Stephen Hawking demonstrated on "Last Week Tonight" on Sunday, he has a higher understanding of time and timing than...
Hamish Maxwell
Philip Morris Cos. CEO
Hamish Maxwell, 87, who steered Philip Morris Cos. in its purchase of General Foods Corp. and takeover of Kraft Inc., milestones in transforming the tobacco company...
As evidence has mounted that "The Gospel of Jesus' Wife" — that tiny papyrus fragment that has Jesus saying, "My wife ... " — may well be a...
Today’s Google doodle celebrates the 215th birthday of Mary Anning, a 19th century fossil collector and paleontologist who, even as a poor working-class woman in a field dominated by wealthy upper-class men, helped shape the study of ancient...
A humble metal box measuring just 20 feet or 40 feet by 8 feet, the shipping container has changed the world.
It helped usher in globalization, deliver bananas that taste fresh despite being picked weeks before, and provide the ability for...
When telling a tale that includes centuries of endurance, moments of triumph, bursts of humor and sudden, unspeakable atrocities, what's the right tone with which to articulate it all?
That's the trick historian Simon Schama had to figure out...
Beijing has no shortage of issues to confront. There's the South China Sea, uncontrollable corruption, a slowing economy and factional disputes within the party and military. But Chinese officials also face one of the most difficult challenges in...
AMMAN, Jordan — Jordan recently became one of the 10 nonpermanent members of the United Nations Security Council, a position that will put the international spotlight on the Hashemite kingdom. Its Israeli and Palestinian neighbors continue to...
From an office tower overlooking the sumptuous Fashion Island mall in Newport Beach, Mohamed El-Erian sat atop a massive treasure trove of wealth as chief executive of Pimco.
Soft-spoken and cerebral, El-Erian presided over a financial...
An extremely rare form of contagious cancer that affects only dogs and is spread via sexual contact likely arose in a single Alaskan malamute or husky-type canine more than 11,000 years ago, scientists say.
In a paper published Thursday in...
Gradual exposure to peanut protein powder over six months helped more than half of kids with peanut allergies learn to tolerate the equivalent of about 10 peanuts per day, according to the results of a new clinical trial.
The Phase 2 trial also...
Since 1946, the San Diego Museum of Art has owned an appealing vision of happy prosperity: Frans Hals' 1630s painting of a plump, rosy-cheeked Dutch merchant whose expression and body language exude confidence, security and bonhomie.
In the...
UC San Diego graduate student Alex Piel is studying the family dynamics and habitats of chimpanzees in Tanzania's savanna. The research requires tracking animals, retrieving fecal samples and then testing to confirm genetic links.
It does not...
Before an audio revolution in the mid-1960s, just about all music, dialogue and other sounds played on tape recordings had one thing in common: hiss.
The bothersome, underlying noise seemed especially unavoidable during quiet passages on the...
British sculptor Anthony Caro, whose industrial yet playful metal creations helped abstract sculpture gain global acclaim, has died. He was 89.
A statement released Thursday in London on behalf of the artist's family said Caro died after...
DNA and proteins are arguably the most important components of the cells of living creatures. Both are produced by stringing together long chains of individual molecules — amino acids in the case of proteins and nucleotides in DNA.
...
Anne Barton, one of the 20th century's foremost Shakespeare scholars, died Monday in Cambridge, England. She was 80. Cambridge University, where she was an emeritus professor of English and fellow of Trinity College, announced her death but gave no...
British biochemist Frederick Sanger, who twice won the Nobel Prize in chemistry and was a pioneer of genome sequencing, has died in Britain. He was 95.
His death was confirmed Wednesday by the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge,...
Pyongyang, North Korea — I became British ambassador to North Korea a year ago, and since then I have seen firsthand the nature of the regime. Its human rights record is appalling; it continues to develop its nuclear and ballistic missile...
Three years ago Tuesday, the Arab Spring began when 26-year-old vegetable vendor Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire in suicidal protest against the political repression and limited economic opportunity offered in dictator Zine el Abidine ben Ali's...