Centre for Theoretical Cosmology News

Stephen Hawking delivers prestigious Reith Lecture

Stephen Hawking has given this year's Reith Lecture, an annual radio lecture broadcast by the BBC since 1948 in which a leading figure is invited to talk about significant issues of contemporary interest.

Professor Hawking spoke of the history of scientific thinking about black holes, and explained how they have posed tough challenges to conventional understanding of the laws which govern the universe.

Sue Lawley introduced the evening and chaired a question-and-answer session with Professor Hawking. Radio 4 listeners submitted questions in their hundreds, of which a selection were invited to attend the event to put their questions in person to Professor Hawking.

The lecture can be heard in two parts, both of which are currently available on the BBC website:

Do black holes have no hair?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06pttqf

Black holes ain’t as black as they are painted
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06qjzv8

The website also contains a short animation created by Aardman Studios, taking you inside the mind of Stephen Hawking, to mark the occasion of the Reith Lecture:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03f6fz5