Stephen Hawking, near the end of his life and career, came to believe that his early work had been mistaken. In particular, Hawking came to believe that science does not provide a "God’s-eye view" of reality. Rather, we need to build a theory of the universe from the inside-out, from within; reasoning backwards from our place as an observer. The later Hawking, along with his collaborator, cosmologist Thomas Hertog, argues for a model of the universe not as a machine, but as a self-organising entity, in which the laws of physics themselves evolved within and after the furnace of the Big Bang.

The late physicist Stephen Hawking first asked me to work with him to develop "a new quantum theory of the Big Bang” in 1998. What started out as a doctoral project evolved over some 20 years into an intense collaboration that ended only with his passing on March 14, 2018.

The enigma at the centre of our research throughout this period was how the Big Bang could have created conditions so perfectly hospitable to life.

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In the old days, it was thought that the apparent design of the cosmos meant there had to be a Designer – a God. Today, scientists point to the laws of physics.

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Questions about the ultimate origin of the cosmos take physics far out of its comfort zone. Yet this was exactly where Hawking liked to venture. "To boldly go where Star Trek fears to tread" was his motto – and also his screen saver. The prospect – or hope – to crack the riddle of cosmic design drove much of Hawking’s research indeed.