Professor Stephen Hawking has solved one of the most intriguing problems in theoretical physics, losing a bet he made seven years ago in the process.
Hawking placed a bet with John Preskill of the California Institute of Technology that information swallowed by black holes was hidden forever and could never be recovered.
Stephen Hawking in Dublin today
Speaking at the GR17, the 17th International Conference on General Relativity in Dublin today, however, Professor Hawking presented new findings that reveal that information can indeed be retrieved from black holes.
Professor Hawking's new calculations show that the surface of a black hole has quantum fluctuations in it. These fluctuations gradually allow all the information inside a black hole to leak out, allowing a consistent picture to form.
Professor Hawking spoke of his relief at having solved a problem that had troubled him for nearly thirty years and said that he "did not know" what he would think about now.
Conceding he lost the bet, Professor Hawking presented Mr Preskill with an encyclopaedia of his choice. Mr Preskill chose "Total Baseball, The Ultimate Baseball Encyclopaedia."