Stephen Hawking on the origins of the universe.

Stephen Hawking talked recently at University of California Berkeley on the origin of the universe. A video is here (the talk starts at around 18:30).

He is witty as usual while discussing deep issues. He gives an overview of how the theory developed starting with the widely held belief that universe did not begin (it always existed). He then refers to Hubble's discovery of expanding universe as a very important intellectual discovery of the 20th century. If the galaxies are moving apart very fast, they must have been close at some point. In spite of a few theories proposed to salvage the eternal universe theory, scientists now believe that universe began around 14 billion years ago with the big bang. He then talks about the need to combine the general theory of relativity and quantum theory to understand what happened at the singularity which was the big bang.

I am an illiterate on these matters and I found the talk quite illuminating.