No Big Bang?

This story's been talked about for about a year now but I still think its cool and new to most people. A scientist in Taiwan named Wun-Yi Shu has come up with a new model for the Universe that fits pretty neatly with the things we've so far observed about it.

In his model there's no Big Bang, the Universe has no beginning or end. It doesn't require things like Dark Energy to explain the expansion of the Universe, etc.

The basic idea is that as the Universe expands, mass and time are converted into length and space. But the Universe can also contract, with length converting back to mass and space into time. It's kind of a hard concept to wrap your head around. (At least for me!)

You can read more about it here:

There was no Big Bang because Mass and Time convert to Length and Space

Model describes universe with no big bang, no beginning, and no end

Does this mean that part of the Universe can contract, getting smaller with planets closer together and causing time to flow faster or slower in that part of space? I could see some really cool Sci-Fi stories being written along those lines.

Also in this model the speed of light is sort of the conversion factor and need not be constant.

It will be interesting to see how this model stands up to the one generally accepted today. I've watched a lot of programs about the current model and read about it and you don't get much smarter than the guys who've come up with it.

I recently watched an episode of How the Universe Works that described the current model of the Universe as they perceive it and was really impressed with the picture of it they painted. It's hard to argue with the work of thousands of our most brilliant minds on something they've spent decades trying to understand.

Watch it for yourself and see what you think:






But I should get back to working on my book!