You can ask Stephen Hawking anything on Reddit right now

You can find out a lot with Google. Wikipedia is an incredible resource. But both knowledge mines appear feeble compared with the opportunity Reddit is offering the internet right now.

As part of its famed Ask Me Anything (AMA) series, the web forum is currently hosting Professor Stephen Hawking on its /r/science subreddit, allowing any idiot with a keyboard to ask the famed theoretical physicist... well, anything.

Hawking opens his AMA with a mention of an open letter he's signed calling on researchers to balance the benefits of AI with the risks, an act he's recently reiterated with the signing of another call to pre-emptively ban an AI arms race - but questions put to Hawking don't have to follow in this high-concept vein.

Previous AMA guests have been asked trivial and "normal" questions: President Obama once stated that he'd fight a horse-sized duck rather than 100 duck-sized horses.

Due to the slow, exacting nature of the computer system that Hawking uses to write and communicate, this AMA will run with a different format: you'll be able to submit a question for Hawking on Reddit from now until Tuesday 4 August, in addition to voting on the questions you would like to see Hawking tackle. Hawking will then select the questions he feels able to answer, and the Reddit moderators will cut and paste his answer back into the AMA over the next few weeks, with links to provide context on the questions.

"My goal will be to answer as many of the questions you submit as possible over the coming weeks," writes Hawking. "I appreciate all of your understanding, and taking the time to ask me your questions."

Here's hoping he decides to tackle our question: where do all the odd socks go?