Six Degrees Of Stephen Hawking

You probably know how to play the Kevin Bacon game: The goal is to connect Bacon to any other actor via the fewest shared movies. This is the scientific version, published as a tribute to the late Stephen Hawking, with him in the leading role.

Each circle is a mathematician or physicist, and the arrows point from supervisor to PhD student – in this network, the degrees really are degrees. Our featured scientists appear as larger orange circles; other notables are highlighted by orange color alone.

Select featured scientists using the drop-down menu; find others using the search box. Clicking or tapping a scientist will place them at the centre of the displayed network, and show two degrees up and down their academic family tree. Then find your way back to Hawking, following the most intense color for the shortest path.

Best viewed in Chrome or Firefox on a larger screen.