• Question: 1. what is the only thing that can escape a black hole (space) 2. what is the coldest temprature posible (phisics) 3. what came first, the chicken or the egg (pre-history/history of birds) 4. what is the most reactive element (chemistry) 5. what is the most indestructable [hardest to kill via any method] in the world (biology)

    Asked by ajennings998 to Chris, Emily, Martin, Natalie, Tamsin on 24 Mar 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Chris Cooper

      Chris Cooper answered on 24 Mar 2010:

      Gosh – help. I will answer these questions in detail tonight. But for now
      1 energy can escape a black hole (Steven Hawking radiation)
      2 there is a quantum limit to how low you can go, but I can’t remember it off th top of my head
      3 the dinosaur came first of course
      4 it really depends on the situation.It takes two to tango!
      5 A bacterial spore

    • Photo: Natalie Stanford

      Natalie Stanford answered on 24 Mar 2010:

      this feels like an exam 🙂
      1. I don’t know, I’m just about to read Stephen Hawking’s “A Brief History of Time” so maybe I’ll know when I’ve finished it!
      2. Absolute Zero (−273.15°C), but we can’t actually reach absolute zero because it would mean the ‘system’ would have to be separate from the rest of the universe.
      3. Neither really came first if you believe in Darwinism. They would have evolved together.
      4. Fluorine – it’s quite an interesting element, wiki it!
      5. I have no idea.

    • Photo: Martin Coath

      Martin Coath answered on 24 Mar 2010:

      That is one major piece of work you have asked for there!

      (1) Stephen Hawking (as I remember) proved that black holes shine due to subtle effects at the event horizon. I am not sure this means that light escapes a black hole. That is a matter of interpretation.

      (2) The coldest possible temperature is still a matter of active research if you interpret negative temperatures as colder than absolute zero. Some do – some don’t 😀 But there is an absolute zero, but there are negative temperatures!

      (3) Neither

      (4) I think the conventional answer to this is Caesium (bottom of group I, left hand side of the periodic table) but Francium COULD be more reactive but so rare nobody does experiments with it!

      (5) There are some amazing organisms a bit like bacteria called Extremophile Archaea that can live in boiling water and suphuric acid!

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