Cool, On Black Holes

[Annie]

http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99996151
excerpt:

After nearly 30 years of arguing that a black hole destroys everything that falls into it, Stephen Hawking is saying he was wrong. It seems that black holes may after all allow information within them to escape. Hawking will present his latest finding at a conference in Ireland next week.

The about-turn might cost Hawking, a physicist at the University of Cambridge, an encyclopaedia because of a bet he made in 1997. More importantly, it might solve one of the long-standing puzzles in modern physics, known as the black hole information paradox.

It was Hawking's own work that created the paradox. In 1976, he calculated that once a black hole forms, it starts losing mass by radiating energy. This "Hawking radiation" contains no information about the matter inside the black hole and once the black hole evaporates, all information is lost.

 

[dilloduck]

Interesting indeed ! Information that survives may be valuable. What's more impressive is that Hawking is able to admit he's wrong. No wonder he's so smart!

 

[CSM]

Hawking is indeed a remarkable individual. He is even more remarkable when considering the considerable handicaps he has had to overcome. In other times, he might even be a heroic figure. Too bad that this day and age tends to make heroes and role models of people of far lesser traits.

 

[nycflasher]

What's more impressive is that Hawking is able to admit he's wrong. No wonder he's so smart!

Ha-ha-ha!

 

[Bullypulpit]

"A Brief History of Time" has kept me watching Prof. Hawking for years. If he has truly solved this paradox, he will be remembered as history's greatest thinker.

 

[nycflasher]

"A Brief History of Time" has kept me watching Prof. Hawking for years. If he has truly solved this paradox, he will be remembered as history's greatest thinker.

Contrast with this jackass.