Damien A. Easson

A translator retells a complex novel in another language, but only if the plot stands still. Once the characters start moving, the translator loses the thread. That's roughly how the 'double copy' worked — a method linking gravity and electricity. Until recently, it could only handle static black holes, where time plays no role.

Usually, the story of the universe goes like this: there was nothing, then a bang, and ever since everything has been flying apart. But what if there was no 'nothing'? A group of physicists has shown that the universe could have existed forever: it just sometimes contracts and then expands again, like a spring.

A heavy ball rests on a trampoline, and the fabric sags beneath it. Any rolling ball nearby inevitably rolls toward the center. This is roughly how gravity works on the scale of the entire Universe. But what if the fabric were arched upward, like a dome? Then the ball would tend to roll outward.

Drop an ice cube into boiling water, and it will melt away until nothing is left. A black hole in space behaves much the same way — except the 'boiling water' is space itself, which continuously siphons energy out of the hole.