What could Stephen Hawking. Albert Einstein and Isaac Newton achieve in a laboratory?

(Paraphrase of a Question asked on Quora). Once again my answer.

Hawking and Einstein were theoretical physicists so as much as they may no doubt value the importance of lab work it was not their avenue of strength nor was it the forum whereby they demonstrated their genius. Their minds were the laboratories. Not so for SIN who excelled at both the experimental and theoretical aspects of physics (remember his work with Light Dispersion).

In his case the world would be his oyster, the only limitation being the equipment and technology available at the time. The one knock though against Newton is that he had a tendency to not play well with others. In a framework where co-operation is key this would work against him