Excision of `repulson' singularities: a spacetime result and its gauge theory analogue

We discuss spacetime singularity resolution in the context of the gravity/gauge correspondence, for brane systems which give rise to gauge theories with eight supercharges and no hypermultiplets. The discussion is aimed at non-experts. Writeup of talk on hep-th/9911161 with C.V.Johnson and J.Polchinski, given in various forms at: PASCOS-99, Aspen winter conference `Way Beyond the Standard Models’, Banff CIAR Gravity+Cosmology Programme Meeting.