The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 7 plus 7 letter word STEPHEN HAWKING
I've seen this crossword clue in The Guardian
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P
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More clues leading to the result STEPHEN HAWKING
- Late professor‘s nephew as knight errant
- Eminent scientist makes you think when page’s turned
- Physicist showing new path he’s worked out with chess piece
- Rung female supremo to get hold of fruit scientist
- Physicist showing new path he's worked out with chess piece
- Eminent scientist makes you think when page's turned
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "Late professor" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case late professor = stephen hawking.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.