Reality-Bending Black Holes (July 2012)
Special Editions

Cover; Reality-Bending Black Holes; by Staff Editor; 0 Page(s)

Table of Contents; Reality-Bending Black Holes; by Staff Editor; 3 Page(s)

Letter From the Editor; Reality-Bending Black Holes; by Mariette DiChristina; 1 Page(s)

Drawn to the Abyss

The Reluctant Father of Black Holes; Reality-Bending Black Holes; by Jeremy Bernstein; 8 Page(s)

Albert Einstein's equations of gravity are the foundation of the modern view of black holes; ironically, he used the equations in trying to prove that these objects cannot exist
JEREMY BERNSTEIN is professor emeritus of physics at the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, N.J. He was a staff writer for the New Yorker from 1961 to 1995.
From the June 1996 issue

An Echo of Black Holes; Reality-Bending Black Holes; by Theodore A. Jacobson and Renaud Parentani; 8 Page(s)

Sound waves in a fluid behave uncannily like light waves in space. Black holes even have acoustic counterparts. Could spacetime literally be a kind of fluid, like the ether of pre-Einsteinian physics?
THEODORE A. JACOBSON is a physics professor at the University of Maryland. RENAUD PARENTANI is a physics professor at the University of Paris-Sud at Orsay who does research at the CNRS Laboratory of Theoretical Physics.
From the December 2005 issue

Quantum Black Holes; Reality-Bending Black Holes; by Bernard J. Carr and Steven B. Giddings; 8 Page(s)

Physicists could soon be creating black holes in the laboratory
BERNARD J. CARR is professor of mathematics and astronomy at Queen Mary, University of London. STEVEN B. GIDDINGS is professor of physics at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
From the May 2005

How to Build a Time Machine; Reality-Bending Black Holes; by Paul Davies; 6 Page(s)

It wouldn't be easy, but it might be possible
PAUL DAVIES is director of Beyond: Center for Fundamental Concepts in Science at Arizona State University.
From the September 2002 issue

The Brightest Explosions in the Universe; Reality-Bending Black Holes; by Neil Gehrels, Luigi Piro and Peter J. T. Leonard; 8 Page(s)

Every time a gamma-ray burst goes off, a black hole is born
NEIL GEHRELS is chief of the Astroparticle Physics Laboratory at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and lead scientist of the Swift satellite. LUIGI PIRO is at the Institute of Space Astrophysics and Cosmic Physics of the INAF (National Institute of Astrophysics) in Rome. PETER J. T. LEONARD works for ADNET Systems, in support of missions at Goddard.
From the December 2002 issue

The Galactic Odd Couple; Reality-Bending Black Holes; by Kimberly Weaver; 8 Page(s)

Why do giant black holes and stellar baby booms, two phenomena with little in common, so often go together?
KIMBERLY WEAVER is an astronomer and adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins University.
From the July 2003 issue

Colossal Galactic Explosions; Reality-Bending Black Holes; by Sylvain Veilleux, Gerald Cecil and Joss Bland-Hawthorn; 8 Page(s)

Enormous outpourings of gas from the centers of nearby galaxies may ultimately help explain both star formation and the intergalactic medium
SYLVAIN VEILLEUX is professor of astronomy at the University of Maryland. GERALD CECIL is professor of astronomy and physics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. JOSS BLAND-HAWTHORN holds a Federation Fellow Professorship at the Institute of Astronomy, School of Physics, at University of Sydney. From the February 1996 issue

The Midlife Crisis of the Cosmos; Reality-Bending Black Holes; by Amy J. Barger; 8 Page(s)

Although it is not as active as it used to be, the universe is still forming stars and building black holes at an impressive pace
AMY J. BARGER is professor of astronomy at the University of WisconsinMadison and also holds an affiliate graduate faculty appointment at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.
From the January 2005 issue

Information in the Holographic Universe; Reality-Bending Black Holes; by Jacob D. Bekenstein; 8 Page(s)

Theoretical results about black holes suggest that the universe could be like a gigantic hologram
JACOB D. BEKENSTEIN is Polak Professor of Theoretical Physics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
From the August 2003 issue

The Illusion of Gravity; Reality-Bending Black Holes; by Juan Maldacena; 8 Page(s)

The force of gravity and one of the dimensions of space might be generated out of the peculiar interactions of particles and fields existing in a lower-dimensional realm
JUAN MALDACENA is a professor in the School of Natural Sciences at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J.
From the November 2005 issue

Black Hole Computers; Reality-Bending Black Holes; by Seth Lloyd and Y. Jack Ng; 10 Page(s)

In keeping with the spirit of the age, researchers can think of the laws of physics as computer programs and the universe as a computer
SETH LLOYD is professor of mechanical engineering and engineering systems at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Y. JACK NG is professor of physics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
From the November 2004 issue