- The God Particle Gunnar 02:31:37 6/16/99
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Posted by rpcman on June 15, 1999 at 12:29:47:
In Reply to: boundaries posted by aevum on June 15, 1999 at 12:10:06:
I've read several books recently which to my non-physics trained mind have been useful in grasping a picture but have been unable to completely show me a clear and simple answer.
I don't think that even a Hawking or a Weinberg would claim to have a complete (or even partial) grasp on what things were like 'before' our universe or our time.
However, particle accelerators have clearly shown us what did happen in the first few seconds and minutes of the Universe. Observations have shown us that some form of the inflationary theory (which creates most of the matter in the Universe) is correct. Remember that matter and energy are interchangable. Raw material isn't needed if you have energy to create it and vice versa. Matter is created via energy at places like CERN (where the early Universe is replicated) on a daily basis. Matter and anti-matter can be 'borrowed' from the vacuum. Energy is all that is required. Energy can be had from matter. Perhaps there is some sort of circular feedback loop going on that will someday call in its debt and return to a state of no matter, no energy, and no time.
Perhaps I don't know what I am talking about. ;) Maybe someone with more of a formal education on the subject, like Erik, can comment and correct me.
In any event, you may want to read the following books in this order:
Blind Watchers of the Sky
Before The Beginning: Our Universe and Others
Doubt and Certainty
The Search for Superstrings, Symmertry, and the Theory of Everything
Nothingness: The Science of Empty Space