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| A COSMIC REPORT.
Timothy Ferris sums up the universe in "The Whole Shebang." |
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Questions asked
in this forum:Was Einstein wrong? What was the location of the Big Bang ? What was the universe like before the Big Bang? If the universe is expanding, is gravity weakening? What is the universe expanding into?
NewsHour Backgrounders
June 27, 1997
David Gergen speaks with Timothy Ferris about his book "The Whole Shebang."
July 2, 1997
A look at July 4th landing of the Mars Pathfinder.
April 10, 1997:
Elizabeth Farnsworth glimpses the distant moons of Jupiter.
March 27, 1997:
Jeffrey Kaye explores the excitement over the Hale-Bopp comet.
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Joe McDonald of Burlington, VT asks: Einstein said that matter and energy could neither be created or destroyed, but could only change from one form to the other, Was he wrong? Are we finding out now that matter (i.e. subatomic particles) are created out of nothing? Do scientists understand this process?
Timothy Ferris responds:
Einstein was correct. Indeed, the equation of matter and energy is essential to understanding how particles could appear out of a vacuum, as is envisioned in the inflationary versions of big bang theory. What happens at the end of the hypothetical inflationary epoch is that the vacuum drops to a lower energy state. In doing so it releases energy -- a lot of energy. The energy becomes all the particles of matter/energy in the subsequent universe. For a more thorough discussion, please see Chapter Nine of "The Whole Shebang."
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