Shadows In A Cave

Scientists at the University of Alabama, Huntsville, have found something unexpected about the Big Bang. Or rather, not found something expected. I love it when experimental measurements fail to validate conventional wisdom. In this case, it seems the Huntsville team was looking to test, for the second time, predictable consequences of the Big Bang theory which, it now appears, do not occur. If mainstream science weren't so wedded to the notion of the Big Bang these results would be taken as moderately strong evidence that the theory is wrong—as it is, people are scratching their heads and trying even harder to make the theory fit the facts. Nevertheless, the worry is palpable: this news has not been widely linked or commented on within the mainstream media, probably on the assumption that if difficult facts are ignored they may go away. But it seems to me that a steady-state theory of the universe still has lots of life in it, and just possibly may start picking up some new adherents.