Book Review: The Impossible Man

The Impossible Man book cover
The Impossible Man

The mathematician Roger Penrose has many accolades for his work in extending our perception of the universe. While his research dominates most reviews of him, author Patchen Barss has taken up the challenge of writing a biography about the life of Roger Penrose, who at 93 is still alive and active. In Barss’ book “The Impossible Man–Roger Penrose and the Cost of Genius” the reader gets a full appreciation of the life of a person who’s contributed so much.

Barss presents Penrose starting from his early childhood age. He grew up in the difficult times of World War 2 under the tutelage of well-to-do Quaker parents. The father dominated the family, resulting in Penrose not gaining much experience in understanding and dealing with emotions. But his father did teach him much about critical thinking and puzzle solving. Barss suggests that this nurturing played a key part in establishing Penrose’s skill and tenacity at mathematical problem solving.

One interesting aspect presented is that Penrose, being university chair of mathematics, was much more comfortable with geometries and shapes, rather than with equations. His penchant and ability to extend imagery beyond two, three and even four dimensions served him during his studies on special relativity and general relativity. Perhaps this was his genesis for postulating conditions at black hole singularities which, in part, garnered him the Nobel prize. Currently, he is still progressing toward a unified theory of spacetime as well as formulating the conformal cyclic cosmology (CCC) into an accepted conveyance.

While this biography provides a description of Penrose’s mathematics, such as light cones and tessellation, it does not provide details or proofs. For these, a reader can peruse any of the many books written by Penrose himself. Where this biography excels is in connecting personal moments and events with human interactions. There’s much about his wives and muses. There’s a constant stream of other high-calibre researchers who briefly or extensively interconnect. Many discussions describe his search for optimal working environments such as having a trapdoor lead to a garage converted into a private study. Unexpectedly, you can also read how Penrose colluded with Joe Rogan to promote his ideas.

As for many high achievers, any biography could become nearly unlimited in extent. This one was six years in the writing with Barss spending significant time directly interviewing the subject. It does present many momentous events including the killing of John Kennedy. But can a reader use it? Does it provide fodder for the debate of nature over nurture? Does it provide a prescription for becoming a chair of mathematics? Does it champion solitary contemplation or vouchsafe boisterous social conversing? That will be for the reader to discover.

Whichever your aim, the book “The Impossible Man–Roger Penrose and the Cost of Genius” by Patchen Barss is a solid biography. Penrose has made significant contributions to his field of expertise and continues hard at work. This book chiefly addresses how he does it. It’s easy to read and while not technical, it does provide an overview of the life of this many honored mathematician.

Watching the Changing M87 Black Hole Event Horizon

Observed and theoretical images of M87*. The left panels display EHT images of M87* from the 2018 and 2017 observation campaigns. The middle panels show example images from a general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic (GRMHD) simulation at two different times. The right panels present the same simulation snapshots, blurred to match the EHT's observational resolution.

The event horizon is a fascinating part of a black hole’s anatomy. In 2017, telescopes around the world gathered data on the event horizon surrounding the supermassive black hole at the heart of M87. This was the first time we had ever seen an image of such a phenomenon. Since then, 120,000 more images of the region have been captured and, as astronomers sift through the data, their model of M87’s event horizon has evolved. 

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LIGO Has Detected Unusual Black Holes Merging, But they Probably Don’t Explain Dark Matter

The traditional theory of black hole formation seems to struggle to explain how black holes can merge into larger more massive black holes yet they have been seen with LIGO. It’s possible that they may have formed at the beginning of time and if so, then they may be a worthy candidate to explain dark matter but only if there are enough of them. A team of researchers recently searched for microlensing events from black holes in the Large Magellanic Cloud but didn’t find enough to account for more than a fraction of dark matter. 

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We Could Search for Aliens Harvesting Energy from their Pet Black Hole

Artist's illustration of a Dyson swarm. Archibald Tuttle - Own work

Of all the unanswered questions in modern science, perhaps the most talked about is whether we are alone in the Universe. A new paper looks at another way we might be able to detect advanced civilisations and at its centre is the need for energy! The more advanced a civilisation becomes, the greater their need for energy and one of the most efficient ways, according to current theories, is to harness the energy from an actively feeding black hole. The paper suggests a civilisation feeding matter into a black hole could harvest energy from it, more excitingly perhaps, the process could be detectable within 17,000 light years! 

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Star Devouring Black Hole Spotted by Astronomers

Recreation of a burst, identified as CSS161010, in which a small black hole swallows a star. Credits: Gabriel Pérez (IAC)

A team of astronomers have detected a surprisingly fast and bright burst of energy from a galaxy 500 million light years away. The burst of radiation peaked in brightness just after 4 day and then faded quickly. The team identified the burst, which was using the Catalina Real-Time Transient Survey with supporting observations from the Gran Telescopio Canarias, as the result of a small black hole consuming a star. The discovery provides an exciting insight into stellar evolution and a rare cosmic phenomenon. 

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A Binary Star Found Surprisingly Close to the Milky Way's Supermassive Black Hole

The newly discovered binary star D9, which is orbiting Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the centre of our galaxy. Credit: ESO/F. Peißker et al., S. Guisard

Binary stars are common throughout the galaxy. Roughly half the stars in the Milky Way are part of a binary or multiple system, so we would expect to find them almost everywhere. However, one place we wouldn’t expect to find a binary is at the center of the galaxy, close to the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A*. And yet, that is precisely where astronomers have recently found one.

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Zap! A Black Hole Scores a Direct Hit With its Jet

NASA/CXC/SAO/D. Bogensberger et al; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/N. Wolk;

Most galaxies are thought to play host to black holes. At the center of Centaurus A, a galaxy 12 million light years away, a jet is being fired out into space. Images that have been captured by NASA’s Chandra X-ray observatory show that the high energy particles have struck a nearby object creating a shockwave. The target is thought to be a giant star, maybe even a binary system, where the collision and turbulence has increased density in the region.

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Early Black Holes Fed 40x Faster than Should Be Possible

This artist’s illustration shows a red, early-Universe dwarf galaxy that hosts a rapidly feeding black hole at its center. Using data from NASA's JWST and Chandra X-ray Observatory, a team of U.S. National Science Foundation NOIRLab astronomers have discovered this low-mass supermassive black hole at the center of a galaxy just 1.5 billion years after the Big Bang. It is accreting matter at a phenomenal rate — over 40 times the theoretical limit. While short lived, this black hole’s ‘feast’ could help astronomers explain how supermassive black holes grew so quickly in the early Universe.

The theory goes that black holes accrete material, often from nearby stars. However the theory also suggests there is a limit to how big a black hole can grow due to accretion and certainly shouldn’t be as large as they are seen to be in the early Universe. Black holes it seems, are fighting back and don’t care about those limits! A recent study shows that supermassive black holes are growing at rates that defy the limits of current theory. Astronomers just need to figure out how they’re doing it! 

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Astronomers Find the Longest Black Hole Jets Ever Seen

An artist's illustration of the longest black hole jet system ever observed.

Black holes often appear in science fiction movies, largely because elements of their existence are still a mystery. They have fascinating impacts on the surrounding region of space too with distortions in space and time high on the list. A team of astronomers have found a supermassive black hole with twin jets blasting out an incredible 23 million light years, the longest yet. To put this into context, if you lined up 140 Milky Way galaxies side by side, then that’s the length of the jet! 

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For Their Next Trick, Gravitational Wave Observatories Could Detect Collapsing Stars

After the death of a massive, spinning star, a disk of material forms around the central black hole. As the material cools and falls into the black hole, new research suggests that detectable gravitational waves are created. Ore Gottlieb

The merging of black holes and neutron stars are among the most energetic events in the universe. Not only do they emit colossal amounts of energy, they can also be detected through gravitational waves. Observatories like LIGO/Virgo (Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory) and KAGRA (The Kamioka Gravitational Wave Detector) have detected their gravitational waves but new gravitational wave observatories are now thought to be able to detect the collapse of a massive rapidly spinning star before it becomes a black hole. According to new research, collapsing stars within 50 million light years should be detectable. 

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