LDAS Monthly Meeting – Hawking’s Black Holes and the Edge of Physics

Tonight’s talk will be given by Paul Fellows. In this lecture Paul will look at the first ideas behind “black holes” and then look at how in 1976 the young researcher Steven Hawking came to publish a paper shocked the entire scientific world and began his rise to world fame. This paper was the first time that the three separate pillars of modern physics, Thermodynamics, Quantum Mechanics and General Relativity had been brought together to yield a confident new prediction without the mathematics falling apart at the seams. We will then look on beyond to some of Stephen’s later ideas as they push forward taking us to the very edge of physics.

There will be a short break and then a talk by LDAS member Bob Baldwin, and he really is a rocket scientist and works at Astrium in Stevenage.