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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Science
Hannah Devlin Science correspondent

Eureka! Scientists explore mysteries of black holes with hi-tech bathtub

Prof Silke Weinfurtner in the Black Hole Laboratory standing next to written theory and on the right is the Superfluid Helium set up for the black hole simulator. Photo by Fabio De Paola
Prof Silke Weinfurtner: ‘Physics repeats itself in many places’. Photograph: Fabio de Paola/The Guardian

At the end of a nondescript corridor at the University of Nottingham is a door labelled simply: Black Hole Laboratory. Within, an experiment is under way in a large, hi-tech bathtub that could offer a unique glimpse of the laws of physics that govern the real thing.

The lab is run by Prof Silke Weinfurtner, a pioneer in the field of analogue gravity, whose work has demonstrated uncanny parallels between the mathematics describing fluid systems on Earth and some of the most extreme and inaccessible environments in the universe.

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