the cacophony of sarcophagi (and other tales)

Over the past two months, I have watched the entire “How the Universe Works” series (most episodes twice), all of Stephen Hawking’s “Into the Universe”, NOVA’s “Fabric of the Cosmos,” the Curiosity episode on parallel universes, and just about every other space-related show that I have seen listed on my TV guide. (Big Bang Theory NOT included.) It’s safe to say that I have been obsessed. (At least it isn’t meth.) Throughout, there has been one fact that has become abundantly evident: black holes are the coolest things in existence. So, it’s pretty great that we (and by “we” I mean some Berkeley scientists) just found two black holes that are nearly twice the size of the biggest one previously known.