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PHVSICS OF THE IMPOSSIBLE
A BABY UNIVERSE IN THE LABORATORY?
As far-fetched as some of these ideas appear, they have been seriously
considered by physicists. For example, when trying to understand how
the big bang got started, we have to analyze the conditions that may
have led to that original explosion. In other words, we have to ask: how
do you make a baby universe in the laboratory? Andrei Linde of Stanford University, one of the cocreators of the inflationary universe idea,
says that if we can create baby universes, then "maybe it's time we redefine God as something more sophisticated than just the creator of
the universe."
The idea is not new. Years ago when physicists calculated the energy necessary to ignite the big bang "people immediately started to
wonder what would happen if you put lots of energy in one space in
the lab-shot lots of cannons together. Could you concentrate enough
energy to set off a mini big bang?" asks Linde.
If you concentrated enough energy at a single point all you would
get would be a collapse of space-time into a black hole, nothing more.
But in 1981 Alan Guth of MIT and Linde proposed the "inflationary
universe" theory, which has since generated enormous interest among
cosmologists. According to this idea, the big bang started off with a
turbocharged expansion, much faster than previously believed. (The
inflationary universe idea solved many stubborn problems in cosmology, such as why the universe should be so uniform. Everywhere we
look, from one part of the night sky to the opposite side, we see a uniform universe, even though there has not been enough time since the
big bang for these vastly separated regions to be in contact. The answer to this puzzle, according to the inflationary universe theory, is
that a tiny piece of space-time that was relatively uniform blew up to
become the entire visible universe.) In order to jump-start inflation,
Guth assumed that at the beginning of time there were tiny bubbles of
space-time, one of which inflated enormously to become the universe
of today.
In one swoop the inflationary universe theory answered a host of
cosmological questions. Moreover, it is consistent with all the data
PHVSICS OF THE IMPOSSIBLE
A BABY UNIVERSE IN THE LABORATORY?
As far-fetched as some of these ideas appear, they have been seriously
considered by physicists. For example, when trying to understand how
the big bang got started, we have to analyze the conditions that may
have led to that original explosion. In other words, we have to ask: how
do you make a baby universe in the laboratory? Andrei Linde of Stanford University, one of the cocreators of the inflationary universe idea,
says that if we can create baby universes, then "maybe it's time we redefine God as something more sophisticated than just the creator of
the universe."
The idea is not new. Years ago when physicists calculated the energy necessary to ignite the big bang "people immediately started to
wonder what would happen if you put lots of energy in one space in
the lab-shot lots of cannons together. Could you concentrate enough
energy to set off a mini big bang?" asks Linde.
If you concentrated enough energy at a single point all you would
get would be a collapse of space-time into a black hole, nothing more.
But in 1981 Alan Guth of MIT and Linde proposed the "inflationary
universe" theory, which has since generated enormous interest among
cosmologists. According to this idea, the big bang started off with a
turbocharged expansion, much faster than previously believed. (The
inflationary universe idea solved many stubborn problems in cosmology, such as why the universe should be so uniform. Everywhere we
look, from one part of the night sky to the opposite side, we see a uniform universe, even though there has not been enough time since the
big bang for these vastly separated regions to be in contact. The answer to this puzzle, according to the inflationary universe theory, is
that a tiny piece of space-time that was relatively uniform blew up to
become the entire visible universe.) In order to jump-start inflation,
Guth assumed that at the beginning of time there were tiny bubbles of
space-time, one of which inflated enormously to become the universe
of today.
In one swoop the inflationary universe theory answered a host of
cosmological questions. Moreover, it is consistent with all the data