The 30th Hintze Lecture – Prof Sir Roger Penrose and Prof Janna Levin: 'A Universe of Black Holes'’

Video Description

'A Universe of Black Holes' Professor Janna Levin (Columbia University) and Professor Sir Roger Penrose (University of Oxford) where the guest speakers at the 30th Hintze Lecture, hosted in the Martin Wood Complex, Department of Physics at the University of Oxford, on the 14th of October 2025. The event attracted a huge crowd and it was sold out. This is recording of that day. Abstract: Black holes are the most outrageous inhabitants of our universe, as well as the most elusive. Black holes are dark. That’s their essence, the defining feature that earned them a name. They are dark against a dark sky. They are a shadow against a bright sky. Ironically, the darkest conceivable phenomenon can power the brightest astronomical beacons. Black holes can cannibalize stars to shine brilliantly across the observable Universe. They are as small as cities or as enormous as solar systems. There are possibly a billion dead stars that collapse to black holes in our own Milky Way galaxy. And there is one supermassive black hole looming at the centre, millions of times the mass of the Sun, as old as the galaxy itself. Each of the trillions of galaxies is host to billions of black holes and to one anchoring supermassive black hole. They are plentiful. And profound. They are impenetrable behind event horizons, inert and impassive, and yet they tease the promise to reveal the theory of everything. Black holes define our history, having sculpted the galaxies in which life emerged, and prescribe our ultimate fate, eventually absorbing everything they can before ultimately evaporating into oblivion. The Hintze lectures highlight contemporary developments in astrophysics and cosmology and are generously funded by the Hintze Family Charitable Foundation. In this 30th anniversary event, Professor Janna Levin was in conversation with Professor Sir Roger Penrose, discussing the nature of black holes. All copyright is with the speakers Profs Penrose and Levin, and the Department of Physics at the University of Oxford. If you'd like to share some or full content of this video, please seek written permission first from the Department. Link in bio.