Black holes - super collapsed stars and galaxies - are perhaps the most bizarre constructs of the collective imagination of physics. Until recently it was held that a black hole would absorb all matter and energy that fell into it. Recently this picture has changed - black holes may, if they exist at all, give off radiation; indeed some may even explode. The mathematical research leading to such ideas could bring about unification of physics' three disparate disciplines - quantum theory, relativity, and thermodynamics. Dr Dennis Sciama of the University of Oxford talks about the implications of this work to John Maddox.
Editor THELMA RUMSEY followed by an interlude