Black holes, cheese, cherries and the far side of the moon

Those people at the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, seem to know a lot about stars, but doesn't anyone teach them about expectations management?

This matter of Earth-shattering importance came to my mind on Tuesday as I sat at the breakfast table lapping up a Xinhua News Agency report that said scientists expect to show the world pictures of black holes within a year.

Now, I know we've been hanging around for a few billion years waiting for our holiday snapshots of black holes, and I'll be the last to complain if we have to wait a bit longer, but I swear that as I read this news I was overcome.