Stephen Hawking --- the world-renowned theoretical physicist -- finds no room for heaven in his vision of the cosmos.

In an interview published Monday in The Guardian newspaper, the 69-year-old says the human brain is like a computer that will stop working when its components fail. "There is no heaven or afterlife for broken-down computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark," Hawking told the paper.

It's not the first time the world-renowned thinker has made controversial statements about religion and the existence of God. In "Grand Design," a book Hawking published last year, the physicist declared that it was "not necessary to invoke God ... to get the universe going."

In an interview with Diane Sawyer last June, Hawking noted that "there is a fundamental difference between religion, which is based on authority, and science, which is based on observation and reason. Science will win, because it works."

He has maintained this position since very early in his career, telling German newsmagazine Der Speigel in 1988 that "what I have done is to show that it is possible for the way the universe began to be determined by the laws of science. In that case, it would not be necessary to appeal to God to decide how the universe began. This doesn't prove that there is no God, only that God is not necessary," he said.

Interestingly, Hawking has also made headlines in recent years over the existence of aliens -- and what interactions between our races would be like. "If aliens ever visit us, I think the outcome would be much as when Christopher Columbus first landed in America, which didn't turn out very well for the Native Americans," he said.

Students simply look at a device when they arrive at school and, within seconds, they are scanned, identified and their attendance is registered.  It saves hours of teachers' time recording attendance and 'lates', and provides an at-a-glance record of who's in and who's out. It also makes it easy to track poor attendance or lateness patterns, which would allow for early intervention to nip a problem in the bud. And it overcomes the so-called 'buddy punching' problem, where a student can make a false registration by swiping in someone else's card.

Face-recognition software is now widely used as an ID system, but this is the first time it has been adopted by schools in this country.

"Within five minutes of school starting, we know exactly who is in the building and if students come in late, it will show up," Ms O'Donnell said.

It is too early to say what impact the system will have on attendance and timekeeping, but when fully operational she said it would allow them to build up attendance profiles.

Sixth-year student Luke O'Callaghan-White (17), said there were a few 'Big Brother'-style jokes initially, but that had all passed. He said the system was "straightforward, efficient and preferable to a year head interrupting the first class for five minutes" to take a roll.