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From: macey@praxis.co.uk (Ian Macey)
Newsgroups: talk.origins,sci.physics,sci.space,sci.astro
Subject: Re: Big Bang - no more
Message-ID: <4799@newton.praxis.co.uk>
Date: 21 Dec 89 12:20:31 GMT
References: <822@tahoma.UUCP> <963@YaleVM.YCC.Yale.Edu> <4786@newton.praxis.co.uk> <2502@hudson.acc.virginia.edu>
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Reply-To: macey@praxis.co.uk (Ian Macey)
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In article <2502@hudson.acc.virginia.edu> gsh7w@astsun.astro.Virginia.EDU (Greg S. Hennessy) writes:
>#His work involves (if I remember correctly) superstring theory and
>#steady state universes.
>
>I read "A Brief History of Time" and do remember anything at all about
>steady state universes. I will reread it during break.`

As usual I managed to post with only half my brain in gear. I read the book
over a year ago but saw a TV program about his work on the BBC more recently
in which he talked about superstrings, his attempt to produce a unified theory
and how this would show we didn't have a big bang. I didn't video the program
so I have to rely on memory:

The program tried to expain what he was saying by two graphics; the first
[representing the big bang theory] was a 3D cone where the universe starts as
a point (the sharp end of the cone) and expands space (ie increases the radius
of the cross section of the cone) as we travel through time (ie travel along
the axis of the cone away from the sharp end). The second [new theory] was a
'round-nosed' cone whereby we still travel through time in an expanding
universe, but where there was no 'start', that is to say, no point [of the
cone] at which a big bang occured. This wasn't explained in much depth and I'm
unsure whether they ment that time slowed exponentially the further back you
went or what. Anyway they were definately saying that he didn't have much
faith in the big bang theory.

And of course he is at Cambridge, not Oxford... :-(

|\\\X\\|\  |           Ian Macey  Bath, England.  (macey@praxis.co.uk)
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