The Big Bang Vs. the Big Rumble

WBUR radio in Boston hosts a talk with two physicists, Alan Guth and Neil Turok, who represent, respectively, the consensus theory of the inflationary Big Bang and an upstart theory of the initiation of the universe in the collision of two three-dimensional "branes." Turok and Paul Steinhardt developed their "Ekpyrotic proposal" out of the mathematics behind string theory. In the audio the two physicists are perhaps more respectful of one another's views than the host wishes them to be. If you ignore the "let's you and him fight" framing of the debate, you will hear some interesting physics elucidated.

Comments

Lay off the booze

[MrBoombasticfantasti]

If you don't understand the current theories, don't worry about it. But please refrain from posting while obviously drunk, 'mkay?

The cosmology controversy

[Eukariote]

Current cosmology is anything but settled. The following interesting documentary shows the perspective of astrophysicists and cosmologists that believe the mainstream view is flawedhttp://www.mininova.org/tor/360930. There definitely are quite a few observations that do not fit the mainstream cosmology.

Re: The cosmology controversy

[Eukariote]

Well hidden from university students and the general public?

Not really. We're talking about a fairly large number of scientists. The problem is the peer review system: they have trouble getting their observations and views published. The general public, in turn, is not knowledgable enough to make an independent judgment, and as such relies on the scientific consensus which is moderated by the peer review system.

Re:The cosmology controversy

[Watson Ladd]

And there are a lot of things that Newtonian physics can't explain. Doesn't mean it's not a useful approximation. NOTHING in science is settled. The idea is to come up with successively better approximations. Our current cosmology was able to do the closest agreement between theory and experiment ever. The next one will get even closer.