Twinkle Twinkle 4-D Star
Um. Am I the only one who sees an obvious problem with this theory? And yet, the obvious problem is not brought up in the article and no one's brought it up in the comments either.
Yes, there are problems with the Big Bang Theory. But the article is asking if it's time to say good bye to the Big Bang because someone published a theory completely based on conjecture that happens to work in a computer model. True, it's an elegant-sounding theory that seems to resolve some problems in cosmology and make everything fit together nicely -- if you ignore the wee little detail that no one has yet proven that extra spatial dimensions -- or four-dimension stars or a "hyper-universe" -- even exist!
It reminds me of some variations of string theory where they had to invent 11 or 26 dimensions just to make the math work. And while I admit that string theory is compelling, it has the same problem: we have no way of knowing if the extra dimensions that the theory needs to work even exist.
Nevertheless, the exploration of alternate universes and extra dimensions -- much like time travel -- is a fascinating subject to explore and actually has a long history in human thought, from Plato's to Alice In Wonderland to the art of MC Escher and Picasso to plots in sci-fi series like Star Trek and Stargate.
For anyone interested in this kind of thing, I highly recommend Hiding in the Mirror: The Quest for Alternate Realities, from Plato to String Theory (by way of Alice in Wonderland, Einstein, and The Twilight Zone), written by Lawrence Krauss, an eminent physicist whose other claim to fame is being the author of The Physics of Star Trek. Dr. Krauss has also written his own take on cosmology and the Big Bang called A Universe from Nothing: Why There Is Something Rather than Nothing. That one does a great job of debunking the more far-fetched mysticism-centered views of why the universe exists, such as Intelligent Design.
Also well worth a read is Dr. Michio Kaku's Hyperspace: A Scientific Odyssey Through Parallel Universes, Time Warps, and the 10th Dimension. Incidentally, Quinn Mallory can be seen reading that book in the first episode of the sci-fi series Sliders, a show about alternate universes. Along the same lines, there is Physics of the Impossible: A Scientific Exploration into the World of Phasers, Force Fields, Teleportation, and Time Travel, also by Dr. Kaku.
But again . . . none of this has been proven to actually exist in the real world (as Drs. Krauss and Kaku are very quick to point out), so I wouldn't recommend using any of it as an explanation for how the known universe began.
Yes, there are problems with the Big Bang Theory. But the article is asking if it's time to say good bye to the Big Bang because someone published a theory completely based on conjecture that happens to work in a computer model. True, it's an elegant-sounding theory that seems to resolve some problems in cosmology and make everything fit together nicely -- if you ignore the wee little detail that no one has yet proven that extra spatial dimensions -- or four-dimension stars or a "hyper-universe" -- even exist!
It reminds me of some variations of string theory where they had to invent 11 or 26 dimensions just to make the math work. And while I admit that string theory is compelling, it has the same problem: we have no way of knowing if the extra dimensions that the theory needs to work even exist.
Nevertheless, the exploration of alternate universes and extra dimensions -- much like time travel -- is a fascinating subject to explore and actually has a long history in human thought, from Plato's to Alice In Wonderland to the art of MC Escher and Picasso to plots in sci-fi series like Star Trek and Stargate.
For anyone interested in this kind of thing, I highly recommend Hiding in the Mirror: The Quest for Alternate Realities, from Plato to String Theory (by way of Alice in Wonderland, Einstein, and The Twilight Zone), written by Lawrence Krauss, an eminent physicist whose other claim to fame is being the author of The Physics of Star Trek. Dr. Krauss has also written his own take on cosmology and the Big Bang called A Universe from Nothing: Why There Is Something Rather than Nothing. That one does a great job of debunking the more far-fetched mysticism-centered views of why the universe exists, such as Intelligent Design.
Also well worth a read is Dr. Michio Kaku's Hyperspace: A Scientific Odyssey Through Parallel Universes, Time Warps, and the 10th Dimension. Incidentally, Quinn Mallory can be seen reading that book in the first episode of the sci-fi series Sliders, a show about alternate universes. Along the same lines, there is Physics of the Impossible: A Scientific Exploration into the World of Phasers, Force Fields, Teleportation, and Time Travel, also by Dr. Kaku.
But again . . . none of this has been proven to actually exist in the real world (as Drs. Krauss and Kaku are very quick to point out), so I wouldn't recommend using any of it as an explanation for how the known universe began.