Acknowledging the scientists who blazed intellectual trails before him, Isaac Newton wrote: “If I have seen a little further it was by standing on the shoulders of giants.” In this special annual series, we invite our audience to stand on the shoulders of a modern-day giant. This year, we are honored to present a special two-part address from two giants bringing new light to black holes. In celebration of the astounding recent achievement of the Event Horizon Telescope, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics astronomer Shep Doeleman will detail how his team worked for over a decade to capture the first-ever image of a black hole’s event horizon. Harvard University Professor of Physics Andrew Strominger will then explore the deep theoretical puzzles that have driven black hole research and the insights achieved by recent breakthroughs.
This program is part of the Big Ideas Series, made possible with support from the John Templeton Foundation.