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Black Holes are “Fuzzballs”
The cool thing about scientists, unlike the rest of us plebes, is that real ones can change their minds and admit their mistakes. The articles above describe the imminent loss of a famous (in cosmological circles) bet Stephen Hawking made with John Preskill regarding blackholes:
In 1997 the three cosmologists Stephen Hawking, Kip Thorne and John Preskill made a famous bet as to whether information that enters a black hole ceases to exist -- that is, whether the interior of a black hole is changed at all by the characteristics of particles that enter it (source).
The terms of the bet were that "information swallowed by a black hole is forever hidden and can never be revealed." Dr. Hawking has data that contradicts his original beliefs. Not only will he lose the bet, but Dr. Hawking will present the new data to a conference of scientists in Dublin himself.
While I have only a layperson's interest in and knowledge of blackholes, I appreciate this story for other reasons. I admire persons who choose to engage in difficult discourse, who form opinions from their knowledge and experience, and who, when presented with data that contradict and outweigh their own beliefs, accept their own fallability and alter their thinking. In other words, I admire persons who engage in scientific thinking, whether they are solving the riddle of cancer or choosing a new shampoo to buy.
Dr. Hawking will, with grace and humor, provide an example for the rest of us on how to live as thinking, reasonable people capable of not only holding to strong beliefs, but changing them.
Dr. Preskill will win an encyclopedia from Dr. Hawking, from which he may recover information at will.
Interestingly enough, this is second bet Dr. Hawking has lost to Dr. Preskill (information on the first bet).
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