Down the rabbit hole

The black hole has always intrigued theoretical physicists all around .. and for many non-physicists its been a very interesting and time consuming 'hobby'. Mathematicians all around find it irresistablly compelling to tinker on this . I met one such person - mathematician by profession-physicist by hobby !( professor by day, hobbyist by night ) Lee Powell ! ( Thanks to my friend at CMU ( in the picture on the left with Lee) who introduced me to him )


And what more better place to meet and talk about relativity, a pub !
One truly great thing I learnt is .. every thing should be expressed in simple ways . The more complex it is .. more the chances that it is wrong . Two underlining quotes on these .. One from the great designer ( gun-designer, mind you ) Mikahail Kalashnikov .. "The most useful things in life are simple .. The more complex are usually useless !"

and Einstein says ... "Things must be made simple ... but not simpler"

I bet the most argued topic among theoretical physicists would be .. was Einstein wrong ? Is indeed the speed of light absolute ? Cant there be anything more faster than a photon ? Can something that shows the wave and particle nature truely have no mass atall ?

Quantum physics is much like the philosopher's rock - we stumble over it , sometimes hit it .. and sometimes it hurts. Somehow .. is that real ? What we have seen is just the tip of an immense quantum mechanical reality iceberg. Sometimes I feel that quantum mechanics is much like faith that ... the subatomic world is a fantasy created by the mad physicists. To the layman, it means nothing.

Its indeed a rabbit hole out there .. but the question is ..... how far down the rabbit hole do you want to go ?