Stephen Hawking changes black hole theory

4.30pm - By STEVE CONNOR

The world's most famous living scientist yesterday admitted in front of his peers that he had got it wrong over the vexed question of whether black holes destroy everything that falls into them.

Professor Stephen Hawking of Cambridge University, who once performed a cameo role as himself in a Star Trek film, told a scientific conference in Dublin that he now believes that information can escape from a black hole.

Black holes are believed to be among the most destructive phenomena in the Universe because their gravitational pull captures everything that comes within reach so that not even light can escape.

In 1975, when he was an unknown physics lecturer, Hawking calculated that black holes can in fact lose mass by radiating energy in the form of "Hawking radiation" - a discovery that helped to cement his reputation as an original thinker in cosmology.

Professor Hawking, who is paralysed with motor neurone disease, believed at the time that once something had fallen into a black hole it was lost forever and that once the black hole itself disappeared, the information in it was lost.

Yesterday, however, at the 17th International Conference on General Relativity and Gravitation, Professor Hawking described his latest thinking that overturns the accepted view that black holes swallow all information for good.

"I want to report that I think I have solved a major problem in theoretical physics that has been around since I discovered that black holes radiate thermally 30 years ago," he said through his speech synthesiser.

After he explained his ideas - which only a few could appreciate fully - Professor Hawking said that he has now lost a bet with an American colleague, John Preskill, who did not accept the idea that information was lost.

"The loser or losers of the bet are to provide the winner or winners with an encyclopaedia of their own choice, from which information can be recovered with ease. I am now ready to concede the bet," he said.

Professor Hawking said Dr Preskill, who was present in Dublin, wanted an encyclopaedia on baseball.

"I had great difficulty in finding one over here, so I offered him an encyclopaedia of cricket as an alternative, but John wouldn't be persuaded of the superiority of cricket," Professor Hawking said.

Dr Preskill said he was pleased to have won the bet, but admitted one thing: "To be honest, I didn't understand the talk."


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