Stephen Hawking hospitalised with chest problems

Renowned scientist Stephen Hawking has been made "comfortable" after being admitted to hospital with a serious respiratory infection.

A Cambridge University spokesman said the 67-year-old's condition had "improved" by treatment at the city's Addenbrooke's Hospital.

Professor Hawking, author of A Brief History Of Time, cancelled a planned appearance at Arizona State University on April 6 because of illness.

Over the weekend the physicist, who is one of the world's longest-surviving sufferers of motor neurone disease, flew back from the States where he is a visiting scholar at the California Institute of Technology.  

His 38-year-old daughter Lucy, and his ex-wife Jane are reported to have been at his side

Photo: © Rex