A recent addition to the space tourism queue was one of the few living physicists to become a household name, and in a week and a half or so Stephen Hawking will be taking a ride on the notorious ‘Vomit Comet’ for a taste of low- and zero-gravity before the real thing. If the idea of a wheelchair-bound genius in orbit seems a little strange, though, why not compare it to the cognitive dissonance produced when someone lets you know that Congress has been discussing the Singularity. Interesting times.