Several weeks back, you might recall, Stephen Hawking delivered two Reith lectures over the radio airwaves of the BBC –one called “Do Black Holes Have No Hair?,” the other “Black Holes Ain’t as Black as They Are Painted.” Both were featured here, accompanied by some lively chalkboard animations.
Above you can watch an outtake from the second lecture, this time animated in a different aesthetic. It’s trippy, hypnotic, and unless you’re grounded in the material, the talk will leave you a little baffled–at least until the end, when Hawking leaves us with a life-affirming message anyone can relate to. “If you feel like you’re in a black hole, don’t give up. There’s a way out.” At once, he’s talking literally about black holes that are no longer thought to consume everything they encounter, and the metaphorical ones we all run into, somewhere along the way, in life.
On that uplifting note, another week begins…
If you would like to sign up for Open Culture’s free email newsletter, please find it here. Or follow our posts on Threads, Facebook and BlueSky.
If you would like to support the mission of Open Culture, consider making a donation to our site. It’s hard to rely 100% on ads, and your contributions will help us continue providing the best free cultural and educational materials to learners everywhere. You can contribute through PayPal, Patreon, and Venmo (@openculture). Thanks!
Related Content
Stephen Hawking’s Lectures on Black Holes Now Fully Animated with Chalkboard Illustrations
Psychedelic Animation Takes You Inside the Mind of Stephen Hawking
The Big Ideas of Stephen Hawking Explained with Simple Animation
Watch A Brief History of Time, Errol Morris’ Film About the Life & Work of Stephen Hawking
Dear Mr. Hawking. If you would read this and respond with your opinion, good or bad, please.
I believe that 30 to 35 billion years ago there was a BIG BANG. This one did not have just the right things to form stars, planets, galaxies the way the next Big Bang did. Our Big Bang 13 to 14 billion years ago.
This Big Bang spewed out hydrogen, helium, and electrons.
These things expanded but never formed anything. Eventually the hydrogen, helium, and the electrons changed, after several billion years, into something else.
I believe the hydrogen and helium changed into what we call DARK MATTER and the electrons changed into what we call DARK ENERGY.
This is what I think is what makes up what we call the fabric of space.
I also think this ” fabric of space ” is what prevents us from going faster than light. However, I think it’s possible to find a was around that problem, so we could travel even a 100 times faster than light. I believe this I admit, because if we can not, alone in the universe or not, we will never see for ourselves. Thank you for your time.