A black hole is a region of spacetime exhibiting gravitational acceleration so strong that nothing—no particles or even electromagnetic radiation such as light—can escape from it.^[6] The theory of general relativity predicts that a sufficiently compact mass can deform spacetime to form a black hole.^[7][8] The boundary of the region from which no escape is possible is called the event horizon. Although the event horizon has an enormous effect on the fate and circumstances of an object crossing it, no locally detectable features appear to be observed.^[9] In many ways, a black hole acts like an ideal black body, as it reflects no light.^[10][11]Moreover, quantum field theory in curved spacetime predicts that event horizons emit Hawking radiation, with the same spectrumas a black body of a temperature inversely proportional to its mass. This temperature is on the order of billionths of a kelvin for black holes of stellar mass, making it essentially impossible to observe.

Objects whose gravitational fields are too strong for light to escape were first considered in the 18th century by John Michell and Pierre-Simon Laplace.^[12] The first modern solution of general relativity that would characterize a black hole was found by Karl Schwarzschild in 1916, although its interpretation as a region of space from which nothing can escape was first published by David Finkelstein in 1958. Black holes were long considered a mathematical curiosity; it was during the 1960s that theoretical work showed they were a generic prediction of general relativity. The discovery of neutron stars by Jocelyn Bell Burnell in 1967 sparked interest in gravitationally collapsed compact objects as a possible astrophysical reality.

Black holes of stellar mass are expected to form when very massive stars collapse at the end of their life cycle. After a black hole has formed, it can continue to grow by absorbing mass from its surroundings. By absorbing other stars and merging with other black holes, supermassive black holes of millions of solar masses (M_☉) may form. There is general consensus that supermassive black holes exist in the centers of most galaxies.

BrainGate is a brain implant system developed by the bio-tech company‚ Cyber kinetics in conjunction with the Department of Neuroscience at Brown University. The development of the braingate system brain-computer interface is to enable those with severe paralysis and other neurological conditions to live more productively and independently. The computer chip, which is implanted into the brain, monitors brain activity in the patient and converts the intention of the user into computer commands.

Currently, the chip uses about 100 hair-thin electrodes that sense the electro-magnetic signature of neurons firing in specific areas of the brain. The activity is translated into electrically charged signals and is then sent and decoded using a program, which can move a robotic arm, a computer cursor, or even a wheelchair.

Scientists are developing the braingate systems underlying core technology in the neuroport system to enable improved diagnosis and treatment for a number of neurological conditions, such as epilepsy and brain trauma. Braingate will be the first human device that has been designed to record, filter, and amplify multiple channels of simultaneously recorded neural activity at a very high spatial and temporal resolution.

When a person becomes paralyzed, the neural signal from the brain no longer reaches their designated site of termination. However, the brain continues to send out these signals although they do not reach their destination. It is these signals that the brain gate system picks up and they must be present in order for the system to work. It is found that people with long-standing, severe paralysis can generate signals in the area of the brain responsible for voluntary movement and these signals can be detected, recorded, routed out of the brain to a computer and converted into actions enabling a paralyzed patient to perform basic tasks. Scientists are to implant tiny computer chips in the brains of paralyzed patients which could ‘read their thoughts’.

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