In the News: "We Must Be Missing Something"
“Is Physics Watching Over Us?” This is the title of an article that appeared on Nature’s August 13, 2002 On-line Science-Update (http://www.nature.com/nsu/020812/020812-2.html). In this review, Philip Ball admitted: “Our Universe is so unlikely that we must be missing something.” Mr. Ball is exactly right! For decades now, cosmologists have been attempting to conjure up theories regarding the origin of our Universe—all the while wearing “evolutionary blinders.” It appears as though some cosmologists finally are removing those blinders, and actually are beginning to come to terms with their own data.
As a part of his review, Mr. Ball commented on an upcoming research paper titled “Disturbing Implications of a Cosmological Constant.” In referring to the work being carried out by a team of researchers headed by Leonard Susskind of Stanford University, Mr. Ball wrote that: “...physicists have claimed that the prevailing theoretical view of the Universe is logically flawed. Arranging the cosmos as we think it is arranged, say the team, would have required a miracle” (emp. added). Ball then observed that the apparent incomprehensibility of our situation even has driven Susskind’s team to ponder whether “an unknown agent intervened in the evolution [of the Universe] for reasons of its own” (emp. added).
To this, we add the recent findings that have been making headlines in newspapers around the world concerning a recent Nature article. A team of scientists (including world-famous physicist Paul Davies) reports that “light has been slowing down since the creation of the universe.” While at first glance this simple observation may seem trivial, if it holds true, then it may provide answers that point specifically to a biblical creation. In analyzing such concepts as the distances of galaxies or the time required for starlight to reach the Earth, scientists always have assumed that the speed of light was constant. If it is not, this (pardon the pun) sheds “new light” on the starlight travel-time problem. Current evidence clearly points to a “miracle” from an “unknown agent.” Stay tuned.
REFERENCES
Davies, P.C.W., T.M. Davis, and C.H. Lineweaver (2002), “Black Holes Constrain Varying Constants,” Nature, 418:602-603, August 8.
Dyson, L., M. Kleban, and L. Susskind (2002), “Disturbing Implications of a Cosmological Constant,” Nature (preprint). [See Ball, Philip (2002), “Is Physics Watching Over Us?,” Nature, [On-line], URL: http://www.nature.com/nsu/020812/020812-2. html.]