hawking update

As reported earlier, Stephen Hawking had claimed that black holes actually emit radiation and information. In this week's New Scientist (not on the web--yet), though, Hawking's views are treated to a little more skepticism:

...[Hawking] tantalised his audience with concepts rather than mathematical calculations, and physicists in the audience were far from convinced.

"I didn't get that 'a-ha' experience," says John Baez, a mathematical physicist fom the University of California at Riverside. Theoretician Joseph Polchinski from the University of California at Santa Barbara was even more blunt: "We don't understand it," he said.

Which means you should still remember what your mother told you: don't stray too close to the event horizon.