Stephen Hawking revamps black hole theory

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http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/space/07/21/hawking.blackholes.ap/index.html

DUBLIN, Ireland (AP) -- Famed astrophysicist Stephen Hawking says black holes, the mysterious massive vortexes formed from collapsed stars, do not destroy everything they consume but instead eventually fire out matter and energy "in a mangled form."

Hawking's radical new thinking was presented in a paper to the 17th International Conference on General Relativity and Gravitation in Dublin.

Arthwollipot · Posted: Wed Jul 21, 2004 9:43 pm Post subject:

I was just about to post something about this.

BBC has an article
Slashdot has a discussion

However, my focus was going to be on the Argument from Authority.

The fact that Hawking - one of the world's leading experts in black hole physics has changed his mind shows clearly the way that science is always changing to account for new observations. It is often said by creationists that science is just another kind of religion, and the authority of the scientists is used as often as the authority of religion.

Yes, Prof Hawking is one of the foremost authorities on black holes. Even he can change his mind when further evidence comes to light. No scientific theory is set in stone. No scientific theory is immutable.

It's also interesting to note that he lost a bet with another scientist about this matter.

primitive hominid · Posted: Thu Jul 22, 2004 8:54 am Post subject:

Speaking of Argument From Authority, let us remind ourselves that Dr. Hawking's conclusions are still tentative.

But your point is well taken, Arhtwollipot. Science does change its mind. Scientists themselves change their mind. A scientist will even admit that she is wrong.

Funny, how creationists want to have it both ways. Creationists insist that there is a bias, if not an active conspiracy, to suppress evidence and data that contradict the accepted theories. Yet, when the theories do change, they claim that this is a weakness of science -- that it changes with new data. Go figure.

admin · Posted: Sat Aug 07, 2004 6:57 am Post subject:

I would like to discuss the similarity between Stephen Hawking and my avatar....

Arthwollipot · Posted: Tue Aug 10, 2004 2:08 am Post subject:

Speaking of avatars, since the boards were down over the last few days we seem to have had our avatars replaced by 'red x' icons. I hope we're getting them back soon? Smile