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November 25, 2007
Did scientists really shorten the life of the universe?
Via Pith in the Wind, here's part of a Telegraph report:
[C]osmologists claim that astronomers may have accidentally nudged the universe closer to its death by observing dark energy, a mysterious anti gravity force which is thought to be speeding up the expansion of the cosmos.The damaging allegations are made by Profs Lawrence Krauss of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, and James Dent of Vanderbilt University, Nashville, who suggest that by making this observation in 1998 we may have caused the cosmos to revert to an earlier state when it was more likely to end. "Incredible as it seems, our detection of the dark energy may have reduced the life-expectancy of the universe," Prof Krauss tells New Scientist.
I'm no cosmologist, nor am I an astronomer, but I do wonder if there is a fine line between science and hubris.
Then again, my very basic understanding of quantum theory would support the idea that Krauss and Dent have a valid question.
Nature | By joe lance | 03:38 PM