Modern Physics is really a strange science!

When you read about modern physics in, say, Scientific American, you see some really strange ideas float by. They can be mesmerizing.

Take these quotes from an article on the SciAm Web site recently, in the article "Do Naked Singularities Break the Rules?", discussing a piece of exotica revolving around black holes. In a black hole situation, a star collapses in on itself as it runs out of nuclear fuel, and as it collapses, gravity becomes stronger and stronger, until it reaches the point where even light can't escape -- which is why they call it a black hole. Ultimately, at least in theory, even the black hole (which may be the mass of a star in a space the size of a Manhattan townhouse) collapses in on itself, into a single-dimension point, if you can imagine such a thing -- the point is called a Singularity -- mainly because it is unique in its physics; quantum mechanics and Relativity are thought to break down at this point. But nobody knows because nothing escapes the "event horizon" beyond which nothing can escape the black hole. This introduces a number of oddities physicists are trying to think through.

"The breakdown of general relativity at such a location [the singularity] may not be a failure of the theory per se, but a sign that space and time have an edge. The singularity marks the place where the physical world ends. We should think of it as an event rather than an object, a moment when collapsing matter reaches the edge and ceases to be, like the big bang in reverse."

IN other words, if everything can arise out of nothing, then it can return to nothing.

If that doesn't give you pause, you have no sense of wonder and should avoid the sciences as an area of study. And check your pulse.

Another quote explains why string theory and similar far-advanced guesses as to the ultimate nature of reality need some smidgen of evidence to support their speculations -- they currently have none at all. "Quantum gravity theories in the making, such as string theory and loop quantum gravity, are badly in need of some kind of observational input, without which it is nearly impossible to constrain the plethora of possibilities." Too many speculative options.

Isn't that amazing?