Black hole scientist dies at 96

John Wheeler, the US physicist who coined the term "black hole", has died at the age of 96. He died at his New Jersey home on 13 April of pneumonia, his daughter said. Involved in the Manhattan project that developed the world's first atomic bomb, Wheeler was one of Albert Einstein's last collaborators.

Wheeler, who was for many years a professor at Princeton University, also worked with Niels Bohr, the Nobel Prize-winning Danish scientist.

President George W Bush said he was saddened by the death of "one of America's greatest physicists" who had "worked on projects that changed the course of history".

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