BEFORE The Big BANG

What this episode covers

What if the universe was stuck in an eternal cosmic Groundhog Day? Picture traveling backwards through time past the Big Bang only to discover you've looped right back to where you started - like a cosmic snake eating its own tail. Explore the mind-bending possibility that our entire universe repeats itself in endless cycles, where infinite copies of you exist scattered across millions of light years, all having this exact same conversation at different stages of cosmic evolution. Join cosmologist Niayesh Afshordi from the University of Waterloo and Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, and science communicator Phil Halper, fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, as they dive into Roger Penrose's controversial time loops and the heated scientific battles between cosmologists who engage in academic warfare. Discover the wild world where the universe literally forgets what's big and what's small, why some scientists think this cyclical cosmos is the answer to everything, while others call it pure fantasy - and why both camps might be having religious wars instead of scientific debates. This episode is based on Afshordi and Halper's new book "Battle of the Big Bang: The New Tales of Our Cosmic Origins" from University of Chicago Press, which explores these cosmic battles and 25 different Big Bang models: https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/B/bo244963115.html --- Find out more about Gaby's science fiction short story! Here are the links for the anthology. The physical copy can be ordered here : https://www.neonhemlock.com/books/luminescent-machinations-queer-tales-of-monumental-invention The ebook can be ordered here: https://www.neonhemlock.com/ebooks/luminescent-machinations-queer-tales-of-monumental-invention

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