Editor's Pick: why this Nobel win matters

(The Editor's Pick is a new newsletter from The Hindu that provides a snapshot of the most important stories from today's edition of our newspaper, along with a note from our top editors on why we chose to give prominence to these stories.)

The 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded to three scientists for their work on black holes, a phenomenon that has befuddled science and has swept into popular culture as well. Roger Penrose of Britain has been awarded half the prize for his mathematical work in the 1960s that made black holes a theoretically acceptable possibility. The other half is shared by Reinhard Genzel of Germany and Andrea Ghez of U.S. for their separate experimental work since the 1990s that tracked down a 'supermassive' black hole Saggittarius A* at the centre of our galaxy, the Milky Way.

Ms. Ghez is only the fourth woman in history to win a Nobel in Physics. It is a timely win, considering the ongoing push for more women in STEM fields. Mr. Penrose brings an element of modern history to the win. His cutting-edge mathematical work proved that black holes were the endpoint of Einstein's theory of general relativity. Einstein himself had not accepted that there is a point where the laws of physics ceased to apply -- the singularity at the centre of a black hole -- which his own theory was pointing to. Mr. Penrose collaborated closely with another celebrated scientist, Stephen Hawking, who passed away in 2018. It stands to reason that if Mr. Hawking were alive now, he would have shared the Nobel with Mr. Penrose.

It is this mixture of an exotic topic, gender roles, and scientific history that makes this story important.