Don't Panic: Google Doodle honors 'Hitchhiker's Guide' author Douglas Adams

Douglas Adams would have turned 61 today, and today's Google Doodle pays respect to the author of the classic "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" book series that was later turned into a feature film.

Adams was born on this day in 1952. He worked as a radio producer, penned an arc of the classic "Doctor Who" television series, and wrote the "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency" series in addition to "The Hitchhiker's Guide." He died of a heart attack at age 49, just after becoming one of the first adopters of Mac OSX.

For a long time, Googling for "the answer to the Great Question, of life, the universe and everything" has returned the answer "42," a nod to the famous author.

With Google's usual sense of humor, the doodle centers on the author's most famous books and shows the "Googleplex Star Thinker" computer at the center. Other items include the Hitchhiker's Guide itself, with the famous cover "Don't Panic," a towel, ("the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitch hiker can have"), and Marvin the Paranoid Android.

See all the hidden items in this video of the doodle: