In Gravity’s Engines, astrophysicist Caleb Scharf looks at the tremendous influence of black holes on cosmic development
“WE ARE stardust,” sang Joni Mitchell. Caleb Scharf might suggest an update to those lyrics. In Gravity’s Engines, Scharf adds a new insight to the half-century-old idea that most atoms in our bodies were born in exploding stars. He argues that some of those hydrogen atoms were likely touched by radiation from black holes – without which we wouldn’t be here.
Over the past few decades the scientific discussion of black holes – those whirligigs of space-time that generate gravitational fields so extreme not…
