From Rachael Padman, Cambridge, UK
In his article “What’s inside a black hole?”, Stuart Clark is troubled at the thought of conceding that “the universe is not entirely ruled by physics”(4 October, p 28).
As a physicist, I am content to think that the universe is always ruled by physics, and in fact that is a tautologous statement. But I am happy – in fact quite excited – by the thought that we don’t yet know some of that physics. How desperately sad it would be if the only thing left to do was to apply our existing theories to yet more systems.
The universe doesn’t need our theories or our permission to do what it does. I sometimes wonder whether some of my colleagues haven’t themselves gone down a black rabbit hole in their failure to accept that.
