Category — Science & Technology

The Hubble Telescope may have been permanently blinded by the failure of the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph. Other instruments are however functioning normally. But in all probability, it would be impossible to rectify the problem within the STIS.

Back in December 2000, Abhas Mitra, a nuclear (astro?) physicist from the Theoritical Division of Bhabha Atomic Research Center in Mumbai, published a scientific paper (PDF) which claimed that an absolute Black Hole could not exist if Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity was adhered to rigorously. In effect, what he claimed was that at least some light rays could escape the Black Hole and it could not possibly have an ‘event horizon’.

All this research flew in the face of the accepted theory on Black Holes that had been so famously formulated by Stephen Hawking, Roger Penrose and others. As a result, Mitra faced a lot of flak from the scientific community across the world. In fact, his preprints led to astro-physicists ridiculing him on various usenet groups

This preprint is by Abhas Mitra, a nuclear physicist by training, who apparently likes to claim expertise in astrophysics. But, unfortunately, when it comes to gtr there is no simply polite way of describing his level of understanding, which literally does not rise to what is expected of -undergraduate students- taking a first course in gtr (c.f. the well known textbook by Schutz).

-Of course- Mitra is flat out wrong.

In India, as well, no one seemed to take his theories seriously. Indian scientific fraternity fawned over Stephen Hawking (make no mistake, I have the utmost respect for Hawking and his work) while ignoring the physicist from BARC.

But then came Stephen Hawking’s admission, in July this year, that information can escape Black Holes after all.

This is a vindication of Abhas Mitra’s work in this area and his claim that light could escape out of Black Holes.

Time to feel proud as an Indian. At the same time, one feels the scientific community in India could’ve been a little more supportive of Mitra’s theories by actually going through his work and finding that it was scientifically sound.

Apple will unveil the latest iPod later this week. Newsweek reviews the new iPod to find that…

It looks a bit different, operates more efficiently, has a few more features and costs less.

This new baby is thinner and sports a new menu that feels like the one on the iPod mini. The battery-life has been extended. There are new features like multiple on-the-go playlists and playback of audiobooks at variable speeds. But the best thing is its price. A whopping $100 reduction in the prices (across the board) mean that the iPod is all set to ramp up its existing share of 50% of the digital music player market.

Now… I can think of buying myself one! ;-)