Hawking Gracefully, Formally Loses Black Hole Bet

Liora writes "Today at the 17th International Conference on General Relativity and Gravitation in Dublin, Cambridge University professor Stephen Hawking said in his talk titled The Information Paradox for Black Holes that he was wrong about the formation of an event horizon in a black hole, and that matter is not destroyed in a way defying subatomic theory, as he had previously believed. According to the talk's short, "the way the information gets out seems to be that a true event horizon never forms, just an apparent horizon." A New York Times story and a Wired story are available, both apparently based on Reuters information." (This is the formal announcement promised last week.)

Comments

Re:Like Einstein?

[Xoro]

Wasted? Nonsense.

The objections Einstein posed to quantum theory were not spurious fluff, but hard-nosed challenges that any successful theory would have to meet. He made Bohr sweat more than once.

Would you prefer we just let something as absurd as quantum mechanics just slide? Scientists might as well all join the monestaries again.

Your statement "pretty much known to be true" is timid and sugary. Bring on the Einsteins.