Tuesday, January 08, 2008

First Weird Science post of 2008!

Is time slowing down? - fundamentals - 21 December 2007 - New Scientist

This story, the bulk of which is unfortunately still behind the paywall, appeared in the Christmas edition of New Scientist, and seems to have attracted scant attention. It's certainly a novel idea, though.

Anyone with even a vague interest in astronomy knows that astronomers now believe the universe is currently expanding at an accelerating pace, and the nature of the "dark energy" behind this is the current major puzzle of physics and cosmology.

But, what if it is all an illusion, caused by Time itself slowing down?

What a great idea. Unfortunately, if true, it means that in billions of years the universe freezes.

Ha! And here you thought time stood still when you had to sit through a couple of Merchant Ivory films with your former girlfriend. It was just the universe preparing you for the real deal.

Update: here's a post from the nicely named "Daily Galaxy" blog which summarises what was in the New Scientist article.

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