Stephen Hawking: Even the most powerful computers cannot replace animal experiments

World-renowned physicist Stephen Hawking died March 14 at age 76. He will be remembered for his revolutionary discoveries, and for capturing the public's imagination with bestselling books and popular lectures on the cosmos.

Hawking supported the use of animals in scientific and medical studies, insisting that

"Even the most powerful computers can’t replace animal experiments in medical research."

He held this position even after computers helped him regain his ability to speak and write, faculties he had gradually lost to ALS, a disease with which he was diagnosed as a young man.

The development of computer-based technologies that allowed Hawking to communicate in the late stages of the disease has improved the quality of life also for other patients with ALS. But treatments that can increase longevity will be discovered through research with animals - not computers.

Read the article at the Foundation for Biomedical Research (FBR) website