AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:
From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Audie Cornish.
ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:
And I'm Robert Siegel.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
STEPHEN HAWKING: Finally, a question about something important.
SIEGEL: The words of Stephen Hawking, who was beamed yesterday into the Sydney Opera House as a hologram. The famed astrophysicist was responding to questions about religion, the future of humanity and then this...
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: What do you think is the cosmological effect of Zayn leaving One Direction and consequently breaking the hearts of millions of teenage girls across the world?
CORNISH: For those of you not in the know, ever since singer Zayn Malik decided to quit the band One Direction, fans around the world have been distraught. There have been tears. Adding to their heartbreak, Malik does not seem like he will change his mind anytime soon.
SIEGEL: Many still hold out hope. After all, the first stage of grief is denial.
CORNISH: And the third stage is bargaining, which brings me to this question. There's still a chance, right? Zayn Malik isn't gone forever. According to Stephen Hawking, maybe not. He says an answer may lie in theoretical physics, specifically in the possibility of alternate realities.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
HAWKING: It would not, then, be beyond the realms of possibility that somewhere outside of our own universe, lies another different universe. And in that universe, Zayn is still in One Direction.
SIEGEL: Here that, One Direction fans? No less than Stephen Hawking says that somewhere, somehow, you might still have reason to dance all night to the best song ever.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WHAT MAKES YOU BEAUTIFUL")
ONE DIRECTION: (Singing) Baby, you light up my world like nobody else. The way that you flip your hair gets me overwhelmed. But when you smile at the ground it ain't hard to tell. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.