Close encounters with the scientist who taught the world about black holes
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IT WAS DECEMBER 1972, I was seventeen years old, and I was attending my first physics conference. In spite of being the Sixth Texas Symposium on Relativistic Astrophysics, it was held in midtown Manhattan. I was spending the holidays in my cousin’s tiny apartment, sleeping under the grand piano that took up most of it. My teacher at Hampshire College had suggested I drop into the conference, listen to the talks, and take the opportunity to meet people. “Don’t be shy,” he said. “If you need an icebreaker, just ask them what they are working on.”
Having practised my line on the subway, I strode into the grand hotel. The first person I met was a young Texan named Lane P. Hughston, who took me to lunch and taught me twistor theory — a radically original description of the geometry of space and time as it would be experienced by a ray of light. I’d been reading Albert Einstein’s original papers on general relativity, but I’d never seen a theory so elegant. In the following days, I met and listened to lectures by many of the leading physicists of the time — including Roger Penrose, the inventor of twistor theory, himself.
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Esta historia es de la edición September 2019 de The Walrus.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
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MY GUILTY PLEASURE
I WAS AS SURPRISED as anyone when I became obsessed with comics again last year, at the advanced age of forty-five. As a kid, I loved reading G.I. Joe and The Amazing Spider-Man.
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The Upside-Down Book
In her new novel, Rachel Cusk makes the case for becoming a stranger to yourself
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Pick a Colour
BACK HERE, I can hear a group of women trickle in. Filling the floor with giggles and voices.
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Quebec's Crushing Immigration Policy
Familial separation can have devastating consequences on mental health and productivity
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The Briefcase
What I learned about being a writer from trying to finish a dead man's book
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In the Footsteps of Migrants Who Never Made It
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Blood Language
Menstruation ties us to the land in ways we've all but forgotten
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Dream Machines
The real threat with artificial intelligence is that we'll fall prey to its hype
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Invisible Lives
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My Guilty Pleasure
"The late nights are mine alone, and I'll spend them however I damn well please"