"A singularity signals the end of time for the matter contained within it," Hawking said.

It is in these singularities, Hawking continued, that the normally disparate theories governing quantum mechanics and gravity could find common ground. The study of singularities is therefore crucial to any attempt to unify all the forces of nature into one, large "Theory of Everything,"

Unfortunately, this project is complicated by the fact that singularities have not been found outside of black holes, which makes them difficult to study.

" God must have thought that [the existence of naked singularities] would make things too easy for theoretical physicists, so he exercised a form of cosmic censorship," Hawking joked.

However, Hawking said his discovery that black holes radiate heat, and are therefore slowly evaporating, means that they are not completely "black" after all, so their elusive secrets might soon become more accessible.

Students said that some of the theories that Hawking expounded--that the universe was really made up of 10 or 11 tightly wound dimensions, for example--seemed almost inconceivable.

"This is quite a fascinating world that [physicists] have constructed. It boggles the mind," Gay said.