Rome, Dec 2 (IANS/AKI) Acclaimed British physicist and cosmologist Stephen Hawking has been undergoing tests at Rome's Policlinico Gemelli hospital, where he is receiving treatment for a breathing problem, Adnkronos has learned.
The 74-year-old scientist was admitted to the Policlinico Gemelli's Nemo Centre for neuromuscular diseases. He suffers from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a form of motor neuron disease and is unable to move or speak.
Hawking travelled to Rome for a meeting at the Vatican of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences from November 25-29, where he met Pope Francis.
The 2014 Oscar-winning film "The Theory of Everything" portrays the remarkable life of Hawking, who was diagnosed with motor neurone disease when he was a 21-year-old student at Cambridge University.
Hawking is not the first internationally renowned intellect to seek treatment at the Policlinico Gemelli. In August, the Nobel prize-winning economist Amartya Sen's wife was admitted to the hospital for an urgent operation.
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The Policlinico Gemelli earned praise from Sen, who said the treatment his wife had received there was as good as that of any private American hospital.
--IANS/AKI
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