I really enjoyed Dr. Mathur’s talk! I’m really glad he focused on black holes during his lecture because I’ve always been fascinated by the topic. I didn’t even realize that Stephen Hawking’s work revolved around understanding black holes better. The way that Dr. Mathur presented the information was very digestible, even though the concept can be hard to understand at first. His lecture reminded me of reading about different scientific discoveries in “A Short History of Nearly Everything” by Bill Bryson.
I appreciated that Dr. Mathur began the lecture by describing exactly what a black hole is and the different research being conducted on black holes leading up to Hawking’s involvement with Roger Penrose. Imaging Hawking walking around the lawns of Cambridge University while thinking about black holes made me want to visit such a historic place. I definitely have a better understanding of Stephen Hawking’s work, Hawking radiation, and the information loss paradox after the lecture.
After seeing Dr. Mathur on the OSU 150 Innovations page, I was very glad that he explained his research to us. I haven’t looked into string theory before, but Dr. Mathur’s description of his work sparked my interest. I was also blown away by his explanation of the photo of the black hole that we discussed in class!
Yes, I agree it was special to get someone from the Hot 150 even if he didn’t know about it haha. I also agree for the non-physicists among us, Bryson’s book was a good introduction to the talk last night.