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Redefining Reality - The Intellectual Implications of Modern Science

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Scientists largely hated this idea, in part because unique events seem<br />

<br />

where all mass and energy is concentrated at a single point only to<br />

explode into a universe like ours is tantamount to theology—it is<br />

positing a creation event.<br />

<br />

it also posed some problems.<br />

If all mass and energy<br />

were concentrated at<br />

a point, the amount <strong>of</strong><br />

energy would be too<br />

great to allow atoms or<br />

even subatomic particles<br />

to form.<br />

<br />

If this point “exploded,”<br />

then such a central force<br />

would send the energy<br />

out in a spherical wave,<br />

but we see a chunky<br />

<br />

<br />

<br />

<br />

universe, not a smooth one. <strong>The</strong> energy congealed into clumps<br />

<strong>of</strong> mass in stars and galaxies with huge amounts <strong>of</strong> dead space<br />

in between. What would account for the clumpiness <strong>of</strong> our<br />

universe? How did we get the elements we have? How could<br />

atoms have formed and collected into stars?<br />

© forplayday/iStock/Thinkstock.<br />

<br />

This last question was investigated by George Gamow. In an<br />

important paper in 1948, Gamow and his graduate student Ralph<br />

Alpher showed how the basic elements hydrogen and helium<br />

<br />

concluded that there should be some energy remnants <strong>of</strong> the big<br />

bang spread evenly throughout space. This energy should be<br />

<br />

expansive universe.<br />

43

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