British physicist and cosmologist Stephen Hawking has been hospitalised in Rome for checks after not feeling well but his condition is not believed to be serious, a spokesman said.
Professor Hawking, 74, who was in Rome to attend a conference at the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and met Pope Francis on Monday, was taken to Rome's Gemelli hospital on Thursday night.
Both the spokesman and a Vatican source said Professor Hawking, who suffers from motor neurone disease, was not believed to be in serious condition. The Vatican source said plans for Professor Hawking and his entourage to leave on Saturday had not been changed.
A hospital source said Professor Hawking would spend a second night in the Gemelli "as a precaution" but that "the situation was under control".
Professor Hawking, author of A Brief History of Time, speaks through a computer and travels with a staff that includes two nurses. He gave a talk at the Vatican on November 25 on the origin of the universe.
