This is 60-Second Science. I'm Tulika Bose.
You probably already know what a black hole is, but have you ever heard of the black hole information paradox? I'm here with Clara Moskowitz, our space and physics editor who just edited a big, special issue for Scientific American on black holes. Hey, Clara. Hi, thanks for having me. So, Clara, what are we here to talk about today? We're here to talk about the black hole information paradox, which has been a problem in physics for a long time. Basically black holes seem to break the rules of physics. And part of the reason why is because we have to use two different theories to describe them. And the two theories do not get along. On the one hand, we have quantum mechanics, which describes the world of the very small atoms and particles. On the other hand, we have general relativity, which describes things that are very big, very massive, very large, and most things in the world don't require both theories.