This week, I'm hanging out with some of the greatest minds in theoretical physics. They're trying to answer some of the burning questions that scientists still have about black holes.
From Aug. 24-29, KTH Royal Institute of Technology is playing host to a veritable “who’s who” of the physics world. There's James Bardeen, known for his work in helping to formulate the laws of black hole mechanics; Leonard Parker, whose pioneering work on particle creation has helped scientists understand our expanding universe; Nobel prize winner Gerard t’Hooft; and, of course, Stephen Hawking.
[Stephen Hawking announces $100 million hunt for alien life]
Hawking was an hour late on Monday, but nobody seemed to mind. Sporting whimsical purple laces on his black dress shoes, Hawking wasn’t even the headliner of that day's schedule. The famed physicist was surrounded by researchers of similar ilk, and his arrival interrupted the speech of a Nobel laureate.
In a conference organized by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and The Nordic Institute for Theoretical Physics (Nordita) and headed up by physicist Laura Mersini-Houghton, these great scientists will spend a week thinking — and arguing — about the mysteries of black holes.
Hawking, who will present new theories on black holes to his colleagues later in the week, gave a public lecture on the topic to a sold-out auditorium on the Stockholm waterfront on Monday evening.
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