Will Stephen Hawking be buried in UK's brainiest cemetery?

LONDON: Will Prof Stephen Hawking be buried in the brainiest cemetery in Britain?

Speculation is mounting about where the last resting place of Prof Hawking will be, a day after one of the world's greatest scientist, died peacefully at his home in Cambridge.

According to Cambridge News, the beautiful Ascension Burial Ground off Huntingdon Road could be where the astrophysicist will be buried - alongside many of the greats of Cambridge University.

Hawking, 76, died peacefully at his home in near Cambridge University, where he did much of his ground-breaking work on black holes and relativity.

While there is no official word about the date of the burial, the paper said it was told the scientist's former wife (Jane) had visited the cemetery and if he is buried there he would be in good company.

"It might have more IQ interred in one and a half acres than any other in the world and it is one of Cambridge's best kept secrets," the report said.

The burial ground were established in 1857 and some 2,500 people are buried in about 1,500 plots. Many city and university dignitaries, scientists and scholars are buried here, including and 11 members of the Cambridge Apostles - the intellectual secret society.

The grave of Ludwig Wittgenstein, perhaps the greatest philosopher of the 20th century, is there and is a place of pilgrimage for many - including punk rock queen Patti Smith who once paid homage at his grave.

There are at least three Nobel prizewinners there and seven members of the Order of Merit, the report said.

It also boasts more than 60 who have entries in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biograph and includes astronomers, biologists, engineers, poets and philosophers.

Five members of the family of Charles Darwin are interred here: two sons: Sir Francis and Sir Horace Darwin and two daughters-in-law: Lady Florence and Lady Ida Darwin and a granddaughter Frances Cornford.

Sir John Cockcroft who split the atom in 1932 and Sir Frederick Gowland Hopkins, the first person to identify the existence of vitamins, back in 1912, are both buried there, the report said.

Others buried there include Elizabeth Anscombe British analytic philosopher and a student of Ludwig Wittgenstein.