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Our time really is running out: Theory suggests that the universe could grind to a halt
Daily Mail ^ | 06/18/2012 | By TOM GOODENOUGH

Posted on 06/18/2012 3:20:16 PM PDT by SeekAndFind

People often say that time speeds up as we age, but if the latest scientific theory is true the opposite could well be the case.

The radical theory by academics suggests that time itself could be slowing down - and may eventually grind to a halt altogether.

The latest mind-bending findings - put forward by researchers working at two Spanish universities - proposes that we have all been fooled into thinking the universe is expanding.

In fact, they say, time itself is slowing down until eventually, in billions of years time, it will cease altogether.

Although the findings might sound worrying, however, it's probably not worth losing any sleep over, or indeed spending too long mulling over.

According to scientists, the gradual loss of time is not noticeable to the human eye. And anyway, they say, we'll all be long gone by the time time really does end.

Professor Senovilla told New Scientist magazine: 'Everything will be frozen, like a snapshot of one instant, forever.

Scientists have previously measured the light from distant exploding stars to show that the universe is expanding at a rapid rate.

The accepted theory is based on the idea that a kind of anti-gravitational force - known as 'dark energy' - must be driving galaxies apart.

However, the scientists working on the latest theory say that we're looking at thing backwards.

And Senovilla proposes that the current assumption has got it all wrong - with the appearance of acceleration instead caused by time gradually slowing.

It might sound difficult to believe, but a cosmologist at Cambridge University, says the idea is not without substance:

'We believe that time emerged during the Big Bang, and if time can emerge, it can also disappear - that's just the reverse effect.'

(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Astronomy; Science
KEYWORDS: light; stringtheory; time; universe
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To: alloysteel

Worrying about the end of the world is beyond my pay-grade. ;)


21 posted on 06/18/2012 4:08:59 PM PDT by bannie ("The gov't that robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend upon the support of Paul.")
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To: SeekAndFind

Didn’t Einstien postulate that all of time is now?

How could time stop, if all of it is now?


22 posted on 06/18/2012 4:12:27 PM PDT by occamrzr06
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To: rawcatslyentist
Time is stretched space filled with matter.

Well....... not quite.

What you perceive as solid matter is actually mostly empty space. When you touch something, you don't really touch it... you're just feeling the repulsion of electric fields on a very small scale.

23 posted on 06/18/2012 4:12:48 PM PDT by exDemMom (Now that I've finally accepted that I'm living a bad hair life, I'm more at peace with the world.)
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To: SeekAndFind

I know what I want to be doing when it stops...


24 posted on 06/18/2012 4:18:49 PM PDT by montanajoe
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To: SeekAndFind
The latest mind-bending findings - put forward by researchers working at two Spanish universities

No one expected the Spanish Inhibition...

25 posted on 06/18/2012 4:30:40 PM PDT by mikrofon (Time Out)
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To: SeekAndFind

If everything in the Universe slowed down by 1/2 how would we’d know? How fast does the slowdown spread? If the slowdown was by 1/2 every second instantaneously we’d never reach the end of it or even know it was happening.


26 posted on 06/18/2012 4:40:03 PM PDT by Nateman (If liberals are not screaming you are doing it wrong!)
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To: SeekAndFind

New York Times headline: “Time stops. Women and minorites hit hardest”.


27 posted on 06/18/2012 4:42:03 PM PDT by Nateman (If liberals are not screaming you are doing it wrong!)
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To: SeekAndFind
In fact, they say, time itself is slowing down until eventually, in billions of years time, it will cease altogether.

So do I go for the "No interest until 2015" on a new living room set or not? I'm confused. A billion years is kinda soon, ya know.

28 posted on 06/18/2012 4:47:06 PM PDT by IrishPennant (Are you behind a "Blade of Grass?")
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To: SeekAndFind
"Billions of years"?

Thank goodness.

I thought you said "millions"!
29 posted on 06/18/2012 5:09:18 PM PDT by kenavi (Obama doesn't hate private equity. He wants to be it with our money.)
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To: kenavi

RE: I thought you said “millions”!

Would you panic if it were “hundreds of thousands”? :)


30 posted on 06/18/2012 5:16:46 PM PDT by SeekAndFind (bOTRT)
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To: SeekAndFind

Oh no, Mr. Hand!


31 posted on 06/18/2012 5:35:43 PM PDT by kenavi (Obama doesn't hate private equity. He wants to be it with our money.)
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To: SeekAndFind
Our time really is running out: Theory suggests that the universe could grind to a halt

I'll get right on it. Right after I finish sorting my socks.

I just updated my estimated percentage of the American voters who are functionally insane.

Now it's 60%.
And yes, that includes so-called college graduates and advanced degrees.

32 posted on 06/18/2012 8:00:39 PM PDT by publius911 (Formerly Publius 6961, formerly jennsdad)
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To: Nateman

Well done!


33 posted on 06/19/2012 12:02:59 PM PDT by Personal Responsibility (Behind enemy lines in the city where it's illegal to buy a Big Gulp)
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To: KevinDavis; annie laurie; Knitting A Conundrum; Viking2002; Ernest_at_the_Beach; Mmogamer; ...
Thanks SeekAndFind.

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34 posted on 06/24/2012 7:59:18 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: SeekAndFind; SunkenCiv

Oh good grief. They’re scraping the bottom of the barrel for scare stories. As if anyone with two brain cells to rub together is going to worry themselves sick over what’s going to happen billions of years from now.

As for time’s slowing down, PROVE IT.

All I see is that “some scientists” say that we’re measuring things “wrong” and time’s going to stop. Prove it, scaremongers!


35 posted on 06/25/2012 2:35:10 PM PDT by TheOldLady
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To: SeekAndFind
Glad I'll be taking a dirt nap by then - I'd hate to think that my final pose for eternity would be of me on the throne with my shorts around my ankles and a roll of White Cloud in my hand.......

"As democracy is perfected, the office represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their hearts desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron."

--H.L. Mencken, The Baltimore Evening Sun, July 26, 1920


36 posted on 06/25/2012 5:18:16 PM PDT by Viking2002
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