A few French scientists are bringing astronomy to captive audiences, such as the terminally ill and the incarcerated. Alison Abbott joined a group of convicted murderers to learn about gravity. There is, it must be said, a certain irony in talking tothe incarcerated about the stars and the infinity of space. And a particular poignancy in telling them about black holes - from which nothing can escape. Yet 50 or so prisoners, many of them lifers, at the maximum-security Muret Prison near Toulouse, France, listened with rapt attention to astrophysicist Didier Barret's 90-minute lecture on Einstein's theories of matter, space and time.
展开▼
