Anybody out there?

Since hardly anybody knows I have a blog, I assume that hardly anyone’s reading this. If you’re reading this, and I don’t know it, post a comment to let me know you’re out there. I’ll be much more motivated to post things if I think anyone’s watching.

Also, in case you’re wondering, I really enjoy playing Dr. Science, so if you have any science questions you think I might be able to answer, drop me an e-mail. I’ll answer here on the blog if I can. My main areas of expertise are big-bang cosmology and relativity, but you can try me on other topics in astrophysics and physics too.

Published by

Ted Bunn

I am chair of the physics department at the University of Richmond. In addition to teaching a variety of undergraduate physics courses, I work on a variety of research projects in cosmology, the study of the origin, structure, and evolution of the Universe. University of Richmond undergraduates are involved in all aspects of this research. If you want to know more about my research, ask me!

7 thoughts on “Anybody out there?”

  1. Hi Ted,

    I’m a mathematician from Mexico. I read your Black Hole FAQ article about 5 years ago and have read it like 5 times since. I think it is AWESOME for those guys like me that do not understand anything about physics or relativity. I finally found your contact through this blog. You say that the FAQ is current. Could you sometime update it and put more questions about black holes (with the same easy-reading style)? Especially interesting topics would be the principles of general and special relativity and micro black holes and the possibility of creation on a particle accelerator in Earth.

    Thank you very much! I love that FAQ!

  2. Thanks for your comments! I’m always glad to know, after all these years, that anyone is still reading the Black Hole FAQ.

    To be honest, I don’t think that I’m likely to update it any time soon. The part that really needs it is the section on observational evidence. A lot has happened in that area over the years, and I haven’t kept up with the literature at all, so to do a decent job on it would require a lot of work.

    I’m much more likely to write similar sorts of documents on other topics, because that’d be more fun for me. There are lots of fun topics to write about in special and general relativity and cosmology.

  3. im just a college student with no aspiration heading into astrophysics or quantum… i am really bad with math. haha, but i really find this stuff interesting!! and wish i could get it ! A few weeks ago i watched this program with a bunch of PhD people(Dr. Stephen Hawking is the only one i remember) talking about stunning stuff that was so out there that i have since forgot the specifics, anyway can you talk about dimensions and the “equation of everything”, and posibly the “string theory” that they mentioned so much.
    No rush. and if you would try to keep it simple.

  4. Hi Ted!
    I’m here – didn’t know you had a blog until I googled you a few minutes ago. I, of course, have been meaning to get in touch with you ever since we moved to VA last summer, but haven’t (other than the Xmas letter). But don’t worry – we’ve gotten in touch with virtually no one. It is so strange that you wrote about Mrs. Oppenheim just today. I only met her a couple of times, but I’ve thought about her more than once over the past few years. I remember her understatedly dramatic stories, too, though I probably got most of them second hand from you, Matt, and Jonathan E.
    Congratulations on tenure!!! I even linked to your sea squirt, or whatever it was – very funny (I tend not to follow most links in the blogs I read but made an exception here…).
    I’m hoping to be down your way several times this summer to visit Andy’s mom and cousin and would love to see you and Ashley. Andy and I got together with some friends a few nights ago and had a good old guitar playing sing-along – made me think of you, too, of course.
    Hope to see you soon!
    -Alison

  7. Short answer: No!

    There are mathematical solutions to the equations of general relativity in which black holes act as bridges to other parts of spacetime, even in principle parts that are otherwise not connected to our own. But I don’t see any reason to suspect that the black holes that actually exist in our Universe behave that way. In particular, if you think about the ways in which actual black holes are supposed to have formed, they don’t seem to lead to anything like this in a natural way.

    It’s certainly not impossible, but if I had to bet, I’d bet against this.

Comments are closed.