The 2012 Paralympic Games kicked off with an awesome opening ceremony that celebrated the spirit of human accomplishment, with a strong focus on the sciences. The ceremony featured an opening monologue from Stephen Hawking, a musical piece inspired by Newton’s Principia Mathematica, and a theatrical simulation of CERN’s Large Hadron Collider. Wired’s Sophie Brown explains it best:

Whilst some may wonder what these things have to do with disability; they don’t. They have instead to do with ability, our ability to achieve greatness in many forms despite whatever setbacks we may face. This is the message the ceremony wanted to put across. The organisers have named the show “Enlightenment”.

There’s a wonderful allegorical quality to the whole thing, which distills to the message that human passion and determination can overcome the greatest of obstacles.

The remarkable drive of all the athletes at the 2012 Paralympics is inspiring to anybody who’s ever dared to do the difficult things — I wish them all the best of luck!