, author of A Brief History of Time and the man many experts consider to be the top theoretical physicist in history, was admitted to , which is part of the University of Cambridge, England, where he is a mathematics professor.

"Stephen Hawking is comfortable," said a spokesman for the university, which is northeast of London. "He's spending the night in the hospital. He has been suffering from a chest infection for the last several weeks."

The spokesman said they would be issuing an update on Hawking's health Tuesday morning.

There has been such a crush of traffic to , that its administrators took its pages offline and replaced it with a brief statement about Hawking's admittance to the hospital.

"Stephen Hawking has become the public face for science, particularly cutting edge physics," said Dan Olds, principle analyst for the Gabriel Consulting Group. "His best-selling book, A Brief History of Time, was written so that average people could understand current theories on the origins of the universe and other pretty complicated questions."