Posted on 12/12/2008 3:08:09 PM PST by LibWhacker
ABHAY ASHTEKAR remembers his reaction the first time he saw the universe bounce. "I was taken aback," he says. He was watching a simulation of the universe rewind towards the big bang. Mostly the universe behaved as expected, becoming smaller and denser as the galaxies converged. But then, instead of reaching the big bang "singularity", the universe bounced and started expanding again. What on earth was happening?
Ashtekar wanted to be sure of what he was seeing, so he asked his colleagues to sit on the result for six months before publishing it in 2006. And no wonder. The theory that the recycled universe was based on, called loop quantum cosmology (LQC), had managed to illuminate the very birth of the universe - something even Einstein's general theory of relativity fails to do.
LQC has been tantalising physicists since 2003 with the idea that our universe could conceivably have emerged from the collapse of a previous universe. Now the theory is poised to make predictions we can actually test. If they are verified, the big bang will give way to a big bounce and we will finally know the quantum structure of space-time. Instead of a universe that emerged from a point of infinite density, we will have one that recycles, possibly through an eternal series of expansions and contractions, with no beginning and no end.
(Excerpt) Read more at newscientist.com ...
WHAT “big bang”??
Just wait. 5 trillion years. You'll see.
This makes my head hurt.
First this thread with MILF and Bangsomora ......and now, the *Big Bang*??
Gutter Minds
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2147866/posts
May be of interest.
Finally the answer came to him and he said:
"Let there be light!!!!"
my thought exactly what big bang!
My girlfriend is being nice to me tonight and tells me it just seemed like the universe didn’t exist before the big bang.
So, instead of a “big bang” it’s a “big BOING”
Perhaps the one that followed right after:
And God said, "Let there be..." ???
Just sayin', that's one way to look at it.
An Asimov reference!
I wonder if this is related to Loop Quantum Gravity, a non-string based approach to quantum gravity?...Well, I looked it up, and yes it is.
D'oh! That's what I get for commenting before reading the article.
I've always liked the idea that the scientific theory of the Big Bang, and God's words, "Let there be light", were harmonious, possibly even synonymous.
Just IMO, of course...
As soon as I can find a big enough power supply for my time machine, I'll check it out and let you know.
I always liked that story.
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