Black Holes: The key to understanding the Universe
With Brian Cox og Jeff Forshaw

Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw present a boundary-pushing science show that challenges our understanding of black holes. Join us on a scientific journey to the very frontier of research, spanning a century of physics – from Einstein to Hawking ... and beyond.

The event is free and open to all, but registration is required.

Black holes are among the most enigmatic objects in the universe – places where gravity, quantum physics and thermodynamics collide. They were once regarded as so theoretically problematic that they could not possibly exist. Today, by contrast, they are at the heart of some of the most exciting fundamental research in modern physics, where a potentially new understanding is beginning to emerge: a profound connection between gravity and quantum information, suggesting that space and time themselves may “emerge” from a network of quantum bits.

In this lecture, Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw take the audience to the limits of our understanding of black holes – on a journey through a century of physics, from Einstein’s theory of relativity and Stephen Hawking’s groundbreaking work to the cutting edge of research today. The lecture is based on their book of the same title, Black Holes: The Key to Understanding the Universe (2022).

It will be a 45-minute-long talk plus 45 minutes devoted to Q&A from the audience.

About the speakers

Brian Cox is Professor of Particle Physics at the University of Manchester. He is a member of the ATLAS Collaboration at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider and is widely known as the presenter of a number of BBC television series, including the Wonders trilogy, The Planets and Universe, as well as the radio programme The Infinite Monkey Cage. He was appointed CBE and is a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS). Before becoming widely known as a physicist and science communicator, Cox played keyboards in the pop group D while working towards his PhD in physics.

Jeff Forshaw is Professor of Theoretical Particle Physics at the same university, with a particular research focus on quantum chromodynamics – the theory of the strong nuclear force. He has received the Maxwell Medal for outstanding contributions to theoretical physics and the Kelvin Medal for his work communicating complex physics to the general public. Cox and Forshaw began collaborating on scientific papers in 1998 and have since co-authored several bestselling popular science books, including Why Does E=mc²?, The Quantum Universe and Universal. Forshaw was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2026.