May 26, 2007

"Eventually, the universe will appear static," said Krauss. "All evidence of modern cosmology will have disappeared." Physicists Lawrence Krauss from Case Western Reserve University and Robert J. Scherrer from Vanderbilt University predict that trillions of years into the future, the information that currently allows us to understand how the universe expands will have disappeared over the visible horizon. (via slashdot.org)

Interview with Iowa State University astronomer Guillermo Gonzalez about the announcement. Download the full paper here.

posted by some wander by mistake 16 years ago
  • Way to set up the human race guys. Trillions of years from now, if they're wrong, the tentacled things will point and laugh at us. Seriously, awesome stuff. And to think they do this with MATH!!
  • BlueHorse, I am quite sure the FSM is already pointing its noodles at us and laughing up a storm!!
  • Objects in mirror are closer than they appear.
  • OK, so we need to take lots of video and photographs for posterity. What medium will survive a trillion years? Is it possible to devise an cylindrical optical storage device using Twinkies?
  • Twinkies are OK for some info--the rest must be stored on those pink puffy balls with the artificial coconut on the outside.
  • Trillions of years from now, the learned members of the human race will marvel at the fossils of ancient human males, whose ample skulls will suggest that at one time they contained brains.
  • Trillions of years from now, I'll have spent trillions of years of saying "See? I told you so." at every opportunity.
  • *waves bye-bye at universe disappearing over horizon
  • What the Hell does a cosmetologist know about it?
  • A hell of a lot more than a dermatologist. surprisingly, less than an ornathologist.
  • I like to start my work week feeling profoundly stupid. It ousually works out quite nicely.
  • Now you know why that profoundly stupid feeling goes away gradually during the week. More proof that the universe is receding!