Word: minis
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...scientific meeting in Manhattan, Lowell Wood, a young physicist from California's Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, delighted his colleagues (although he did not exactly convince them) with a plan to give the earth a virtually limitless energy supply. He suggested tapping the energy of a mini-black hole in orbit around the planet. From a spacecraft orbiting at a safe distance, pellets would be fired at the hole. This would create so much heat that the energy could be converted into microwaves and beamed down to earth. Even Wheeler, who is now at the University of Texas, and his former student...
...Bang, the primordial explosion that created the universe some 15 billion to 20 billion years ago, matter was hurled in all directions. In some places, Hawking says, quantities of matter roughly equivalent to the amount in a mountain may have become compressed enough to collapse, forming what he calls mini-black holes. Their circumference, as measured by their event horizons, could be no larger than that of an atomic particle...
...imaginative University of Texas researchers suggested that a tiny black hole had passed through the earth in 1908, causing the mysterious blast that leveled trees for miles around in the Tunguska region of Siberia. But most scientists doubt that explanation. Says Princeton's Ostriker: "A hit by a mini-black hole would have blown up the entire earth...
...even more brilliant mathematical tour de force, Hawking has gone on to point out that black holes apparently violate the cherished no-escape doctrine. Contrary to expectations, Hawking's mini-black holes are gradually "evaporating," leaking subatomic particles and high-energy gamma rays back into the universe and rising in temperature. After billions of years, according to Hawking's calculations, the minuscule hole, unlike its large brother, can no longer sustain the buildup of heat and expires in a Gotterdammerung-like blast comparable to the explosion of millions of H-bombs...
...Improved "high-energy" astronomical satellites. These would be sensitive enough to pick up gamma radiation from Hawking's mini-black holes...