An ancient creation myth from the so-called “Eighth Hidden Book of Moses” has God bring all things into being with seven laughs.
Cosmology
Photo by Ben White on Unsplash
Temperature fluctuations in the early universe • NASA / WMAP Science Team (Public Domain)
Bang, you’re not dead
One could say of the Big Bang what Mark Twain said of himself: Reports of its death are greatly exaggerated.
Photo by Jeremy Bishop on Unsplash
Is it pointless to ask if the universe is pointless?
“The more the universe seems comprehensible, the more it also seems pointless.”
Artist's concept of the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) • NASA (Public Domain)
Big boost for the Big Bang
The poet Muriel Rukeyser wrote, “The universe is made of stories, not of atoms.”
Joseph Haydn and William Herschel
Choruses and quasars
Early morning. Coffee simmering. Downstairs the furnace squeaks and rumbles to life, like the tuning-up of a distant orchestra. I settle in an easy chair to read three news stories about the beginning of the world. On the stereo, Joseph Haydn’s Creation oratorio.
Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash
Love and physics
It was an epic encounter. Shirley MacLaine, talented actress-turned-New Age guru, purveyor of inner bliss through the channeling of cosmic energy, meets Stephen Hawking, brilliant theoretical physicist and mathematician, whose body is totally disabled by motor neuron disease.
Photo by Kyle Gregory Devaras on Unsplash
Black velvet skies
Every astronomer and backyard stargazer who has ever looked into the night has made one of the most important observations in the history of astronomy. The night sky is dark! Stars shine in a black sky.
Photo by Rakicevic Nenad from Pexels
The new creationists
The C‑word is back. “Creation,” long taboo, tainted with the odor of mysticism, a pariah concept that dared not speak its name, is back in the vocabulary of science.
The Red Queen addresses Alice • John Tenniel
The Red Queen and cosmic strings
“One can’t believe impossible things,” says Alice in Through the Looking-Glass. “I daresay you haven’t had much practice,” the Red Queen replies.
Woodcut by Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld (Public Domain)
God and the Big Bang
Next winter [1985] Halley’s Comet will make its long awaited dash around the sun. It will be the fourth appearance of the comet since Newton’s colleague Edmund Halley predicted its periodic return.