[RightWhale]

Kind of halfway between the Big Bang and Hoyle's Steady State models. A cyclical model would be easier to imagine than one that has a discontinuity. Everything else is cyclical, why not the structure of the universe as well; there is a kind of stability in cyclical processes, a permanence.

[My Identity]

"I really think nature will be the final arbiter here."

And still, from whence does it all spring?

[balrog666]

Does that mean we should all convert to Hindu-ism?

[Psycho_Bunny]

A new theory of the universe suggests that space and time...

"New"?  A "new" theory?

Ya, if you were born 20 minutes ago this would be a new theory.

This theory's been around for ages.

Who's the moron that wrote this article.

[Liberty Tree Surgeon]

Bumping, and adding the ubiquitous "turtles all the way down" comment.

LTS

[longshadow]

cyclical turtles-all-the-way-down cosmological space-time place-moment marker

[LibWhacker]

There was an ocillatory theory I remember reading about years ago that depended on an endless cycle of Big Bang, Big Crunch, Big Bang, Big Crunch, . . . ad infinitum. The period was conjectured to be 80 billion years. I can't remember who came up with the theory.

The thing about it that I really liked was that because time is infinite, every possible permutation of initial conditions would eventually repeat, also an infinite number of times. In other words, we've all been here before an infinite number of times and will be here in the future an infinite number of times. And not only as ourselves, but as every possible permutation of ourselves, experiencing every possible outcome to our lives . . . Someday RightWhale will be president!!! :-)

[Mind-numbed Robot]

Perhaps the unifying principle is the sine wave.

"They have found a simple explanation for the observed fact the universe on large scales looks the same to us left and right, up and down -- a seemingly obvious and natural condition -- that in fact has defied explanation for decades."

In my unlearned mind this seems naive. We are observing the universe from a particular point in it, sort of like the blind men and the elephant, so how may we assume that the view is the same from everywhere?

[Lazamataz]

Adding Trillions Of Years To The Life Of The Universe.......

........if it would only cut back on the drinking and fatty foods, and stop smoking.

[SteamshipTime]

Where have I heard this before?

Thank you, thank you! I'm here all week!...

[vollmond]

Comtemplating the origin of the universe always makes my brane hurt.

[LurkedLongEnough]

Someone needs to send this to the *bang_list. harharhar

[dead]

as the fifth dimension undergoes a collapse.

I don’t know about The Fifth Dimension, but I think The Mamas & The Papas had this problem on a stage in San Fran, due mainly to the mass of Cass.

[fella]

"Princeton physicist Paul Steinhardt and Neil Turok of Cambridge University"

Any teachers who give their students an average grade of A- must be a very doubtful source of kowledge at best.

[wingnuts'nbolts]

It certainly makes more sense than previous theories. There is something comforting about the thought that the univers has always been, and is reborn over and over.

[MEGoody]

Mankind will always have new 'theories' about how the universe began. The fact is, since no one observed it occuring, it's pretty much guesswork.

[Wm Bach]

There was an article posted here earlier this week theorizing that black holes were much stranger objects than previously believed, and that furthermore, these objects were solid as opposed to "holes" in space.

It is also theorized that these ultra dense objects have an impossibly dense "shell" whose ability to pull in more matter from the universe at large is balanced by equally forceful internal pressure.

The article also stated that perhaps entire universes existed within black holes.

Might then the occillating of our own universe be the result of outward expansion, followed by collapse which is accompanied by an influx of matter from an external universe?

Who to ask...?

[Yeti]

. It addresses, for example, the nagging question of what might have triggered or come "before" the beginning of time.

No it doesn't. I can't read on.

[Robert A Cook PE]

Plasma theory is more realistic, in my hiumble opinion.

15 billion years is too short a time to create the needed haevy metals from H2 - if you use current supernova populations and lifetimes.... combined with the "less than speed of light" requirement for "moving" the newly-created heavier atoms between subsequent supernova's.

If you assume supernova's were more common (with a much, much faster lifetimes between initial stellar birth through supernova) in early time, then you must explain why they are tens of thousands of times slower now.

Barring all that ... why not congratulate the author of Genisis for getting the entire evolution, continental drift, and cosmic creation Story right?

His sequence is correct .... just off a little bit in the powers-of-ten decimal place(s)! [Not bad if you consider zero's hadn't been invented yet.]

[<1/1,000,000th%]

Neil Turok is a Vulcan time-traveller from the future.

[Tauzero]

Great theory, except that our half is the dark universe. Stanley, Zev, and Kai are from the light universe.