Graphity ..?

[ZeroID]

http://www.smh.com.au/technology/sci-tech/melbourne-researchers-rewrite-big-bang-theory-20120821-24j5z.html

A new theory on how the universe started, not with a bang but with a whimper ..?

[Dave2042]

It's not actually a typo. The idea is to represent spacetime as discrete connected events, rather than a continuum. This brings the whole thing into the realms of both graph theory (ie spacetime now looks like a graph in the discrete mathematical sense) and quantum gravity (ie the structure of spacetime, and hence gravity, is quantised). Quantum Graphity is a clever pun that encapsulates the idea. Here arrives the outer limit of my knowledge of the subject.

Of course, I don't get the sense the reporter is fully across all this.

[bojan]

Yep..
See here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_Graphity#Quantum_Graphity

[ZeroID]

No, I realised the 'pun' but was interested in what the article had to say. I was, like them, using the unusual word to get attention and comment here. Maybe I should have left the question marks off. Just gave me food for thought ... again..

I do love this whole subject\hobby\obsession. Just so much to learn. Enrolled for the free online Astro course at Cousera for Nov 27th. Doing pre-reading now. Should be interesting.

Gawd, I wish these clouds would go away !!!!

[Dave2042]

Sorry, no offense meant.

It is a mind-boggling area. I did a degree in Physics years ago, and couldn't avoid the sensation I was actually going backwards. Each new thing I learned simply opened up an even larger expanse of stuff I was never going to properly understand.

[gregbradley]

Gotta say it doesn't sound right at all.

Everything in the universe tends to hot - stars etc. How could that start out as cold? Where did the energy come from?

When you see a paper and it contains unintelligble wording you've got to suspect straight away they don't know what they are talking about.

Real experts understand the simplicity of things and can explain it easily. If they can't they are most likely wrong.

Greg.

[icytailmark]

we will never actually know how the universe started. It is all just best guess. Someone needs to invent a time machine so we can go back and see!!!!!

[sjastro]

The article makes an common error as to what the Big Bang theory is "actually theorizing".

The Big Bang theory is about the evolution of the Universe, not the origin of the Universe.

Regards

Steven

[ZeroID]

None taken Dave, I should have been a little less ambiguous maybe but I like challenging ideas and people.
Going backwards eh ? I think of it more like possibilities ... but it gets bigger for sure.
I'm doing the pre-reading for an astro course at present and it's challenged me in a few ways, you have to stop and think about thses things.