Continued
Hawking's first major breakthrough came in 1970, when he and Roger Penrose applied the mathematics of black holes to the universe and showed that a singularity, a region of infinite curvature in spacetime, lay in our distant past: the point from which came the big bang.
Penrose found he was able to talk with Hawking even as the latter's speech failed. Hawking, he said, had an absolute determination not to let anything get in his way. "He thought he didn't have long to live, and he really wanted to get as much as he could done at that time."
In 1974 Hawking drew on quantum theory to declare that black holes should emit heat and eventually pop out of existence. For normal-sized black holes, the process is extremely slow, but miniature black holes would release heat at a spectacular rate, eventually exploding with the energy of a million one-megaton hydrogen bombs.
▍生词好句
apply A to B: 把 A 应用到 B
singularity /sɪŋɡjʊˈlarɪti/: n. 奇点
infinite /ˈɪnfɪnɪt/: adj. 无限的
curvature /ˈkəːvətʃə/: n. 弯曲；扭曲
latter /ˈlatə/: n. 后者
former /ˈfɔːmə/: n. 前者
draw on: 利用；借鉴
quantum theory /ˈkwɒntəm/: 量子理论
emit /ɪˈmɪt/: vt. 释放；散发
miniature /ˈmɪnɪtʃə/: adj. 迷你的；很小的
spectacular /spɛkˈtakjʊlə/: adj. 惊人的；极其壮观的
megaton /ˈmɛɡətʌn/: n. 百万吨级
His proposal that black holes radiate heat stirred up one of the most passionate debates in modern cosmology. 5.02 Hawking argued that if a black hole could evaporate, all the information that fell inside over its lifetime would be lost forever.
It contradicted one of the most basic laws of quantum mechanics, and plenty of physicists disagreed.
Hawking came round to believing the more common, if no less baffling, explanation that information is stored at a black hole’s event horizon, and encoded back into radiation as the black hole radiates.
Marika Taylor, a former student of Hawking’s and now professor of theoretical physics at Southampton University, remembers how Hawking announced his U-turn on the information paradox to his students.
He was discussing their work with them in the pub when Taylor noticed he was turning his speech synthesiser up to the max.
“I’m coming out!” he bellowed.
The whole pub turned around and looked at the group before Hawking turned the volume down and clarified the statement: “I’m coming out and admitting that maybe information loss doesn’t occur.”
He had, Taylor said, “a wicked sense of humour.”
▍生词好句
stir up a debate: 激起一场辩论
cosmology /kɒzˈmɒlədʒi/: n. 宇宙学
quantum mechanics: n. 量子力学
come round: 转而支持、采纳（某个观点）
baffling /ˈbaf(ə)lɪŋ/: adj. 晦涩的；难懂的
event horizon: （黑洞的）视界；事件穹界
bellow /ˈbɛləʊ/: vi. 大喊
wicked /ˈwɪkɪd/: adj. 顽皮的；恶作剧的；恶毒的
