Inflation back in the mists of time.

[desperate]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-26605974

It looks like the standard model of the "big bang theory" has seen one of its predictions receive a fillip.
Inflation was postulated to try and explain why the universe as we see it is so smooth, it does look pretty similar wherever we look. This seems a bit odd when there has been 14bn years for gravity to clumpify it, BICEP2 seems to have found evidence of the ripples in spacetime that would be produced by inflation just after the big bang.

Coool eh?

That's how I understand it anyway, but I could very well be mistook

Desp

[stannn]

........and if you ever wondered what gravitational waves were then this girl will help you to visualise with the assistance of her towel and an apple (my mind is racing).
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn25254-gravitational-waves-explained-with-a-towel-and-apple.html#.UyoPImtYCSM
Stan

[eastcoastdave]

It just goes to show that Douglas Adams was right in the Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy;  You should always have your towel with you.  In this case I think to wrap around your head when it starts hurting from too much deep thinking.

[todthedog]

I've relied on total improbability drive for years.  Things just get less and less probable as you get older, but not noticed the expected increase in velocity.

[todthedog]

How did the universe expand faster than the speed of light?

[desperate]

How did the universe expand faster than the speed of light?

That's the inflation bit at the very start of the expansion, I don't think the scientists really know how it all works under those extreme conditions, same as the singularity of a black hole regular physics falls to bits. That's partly why they are so excited by this, it could just be a hint of how Gravity fits together with the other three forces and also how quantum physics relates to large scale effects. I read loads of books and am very interested in cosmology and all that, but I don't pretend to understand it much.

Desp

[biff]

Aye Desp..
I knew all about black holes when I was younger about 8yrs old,a kind of a young Einstein or H..awkins.I was able to run in the door and tell me mam who it was got banged up for fighting at the fair and got slung into the black hole,(chokey)
                                                                          Biff

[todthedog]

A very brief Ted talk on inflation.
http://www.ted.com/talks/allan_adams_the_discovery_that_could_rewrite_physics?utm_source=newsletter_weekly_2014-04-05&utm_campaign=newsletter_weekly&utm_medium=email&utm_content=talk_of_the_week_button