Has Science Made a Foothold in Pop Culture?

It seems so, in a strange kind of way. Stephen Hawking is getting the same kind of internet treatment that is usually reserved for pop icons like Tom Hanks, Miley Cyrus and Harrison Ford: Internet rumors of his death. I'd love to read what PZ has to say about all this, but I'd guess Pharyngula is being overloaded with hits. I certainly can't get the page to load.

I hadn't seen the rumors yet myself, until I hit a link taking me to Yahoo Answers, where someone said with some authority that Hawking was killed by a Christian Fundamentalist because he was close to close to a final proof of the non-existence of God.

I mean just that phrase alone "Final proof of the non-existence of God" should have tipped people off, but people don't think.

The problem is that the voices of reason are being overwhelmed in the forums and on Twitter by the sheer momentum of this ridiculous rumor.

Just stop and think about it.

Anyway, it seems that a lot of this is a corruption of an old Onion radio broadcast (yes, there are still people out there that think The Onion is real news, sad to say):