Early in his career, mathematician Roger Penrose collaborated with artist M. C. Escher to create the famous visual illusion known as “Ascending and Descending.” This collaboration reflects Penrose’s enduring curiosity and inquisitive mind. Throughout his long and distinguished career, he has made significant contributions to our understanding of the universe, including working with Stephen Hawking to unravel the mysteries of the big bang and developing a quantum theory of consciousness alongside Stuart Hameroff, an anesthesiologist. In recognition of his groundbreaking work, Penrose was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for his prediction of singularities, which are regions of intense gravitational fields where space-time breaks down, such as at the core of a black hole. At 91 years old, Penrose continues to innovate and even contemplates communication with future universes.
In a recent interview, Michael Brooks asked Penrose about his early prediction of singularities and how he felt seeing the first photograph of a black hole more than fifty years later. Penrose admitted that by the time the photograph emerged, he was already expecting such evidence. However, he reflected on the curious reaction he received when he first proved the singularity theorem. Renowned cosmologist Bob Dicke approached him and congratulated him on showing that general relativity was fundamentally flawed. This sentiment was quite common at the time, and Penrose believes even Einstein might have shared a similar view.
Insights:
– Roger Penrose collaborated with artist M.C. Escher to create the visual illusion “Ascending and Descending.”
– Penrose conducted significant research on singularities and won the Nobel Prize in Physics for his predictions.
– He developed a quantum theory of consciousness with Stuart Hameroff.
– Penrose continues to be active in his field and explores the possibility of communicating with future universes.
– The first photograph of a black hole did not surprise Penrose as he was already anticipating such evidence.
