"It is really a high density situation that we call the big bang, but there is really no explosion," says Freese. "There is no 'bang.' There is no singular point."<br /><br />Question: Does it make sense to ask what preceded the Big <br />Bang?Katie Freese: I think people have the misconception that <br />the big bang is the universe starting from a point. In fact, it is very <br /> different from that. Probably you know that the Universe is expanding, <br /> so if we go backwards in time then you can watch the Universe contract <br />as you go backwards in time. So for example, if you took a tabletop <br />then any two points would get closer together, but the points that are <br />way far apart if you had... Let's say it's an infinite tabletop, so as <br />these points get closer and closer together you still have a tabletop <br />that is infinite in extent. It's not like everything comes into one <br />point, but eventually you reach such a high density. Things are so <br />compact and right on top of each other that we lose our description. <br />Physics fails. That is what the big bang is, so it's actually we would <br />need to have a theory of quantum mechanics and gravity simultaneously to <br /> be able to discuss physics going backwards in time any further, so it <br />is really a high density situation that we call the big bang, but there <br />is really no explosion. There is no bang. There is no singular point. <br /> But so yes, it does make sense to ask well what happens when you reach <br />that density and that is what people are trying to do in theories of <br />quantum gravity such as string theory or well some of the cosmology that <br /> I've done also is in the context of brains where our observable <br />universe is living on a three dimensional surface in a higher <br />dimensional universe and there could be other brains out there and how <br />these brains intersect one another and their motions and so on has <br />been... So there are different avenues to try to push back our level of <br />knowledge and they are very active, but very difficult.Everything <br /> was more dense and then there is a certain point where... which we call <br />the big bang and it's from that point forward that we start our clocks, <br />so that's... And then so and we say the universe is 13.7 billion years <br />old is relative to that very high density situation. Recorded May 7, 2010Interviewed by David Hirschman<br /><br />Question: Does it make sense to ask what preceded the Big <br />Bang?Katie Freese: I think people have the misconception that <br />the big bang is the universe starting from a point. In fact, it is very <br /> different from that. Probably you know that the Universe is expanding, <br /> so if we go backwards in time then you can watch the Universe contract <br />as you go backwards in time. So for example, if you took a tabletop <br />then any two points would get closer together, but the points that are <br />way far apart if you had... Let's say it's an infinite tabletop, so as <br />these points get closer and closer together you still have a tabletop <br />that is infinite in extent. It's not like everything comes into one <br />point, but eventually you reach such a high density. Things are so <br />compact and right on top of each other that we lose our description. <br />Physics fails. That is what the big bang is, so it's actually we would <br />need to have a theory of quantum mechanics and gravity simultaneously to <br /> be able to discuss physics going backwards in time any further, so it <br />is really a high density situation that we call the big bang, but there <br />is really no explosion. There is no bang. There is no singular point. <br /> But so yes, it does make sense to ask well what happens when you reach <br />that density and that is what people are trying to do in theories of <br />quantum gravity such as string theory or well some of the cosmology that <br /> I've done also is in the context of brains where our observable <br />universe is living on a three dimensional surface in a higher <br />dimensional universe and there could be other brains out there and how <br />these brains intersect one another and their motions and so on has <br />been... So there are different avenues to try to push back our level of <br />knowledge and they are very active, but very difficult.Everything <br /> was more dense and then there is a certain point where... which we call <br />the big bang and it's from that point forward that we start our clocks, <br />so that's... And then so and we say the universe is 13.7 billion years <br />old is relative to that very high density situation. Recorded May 7, 2010Interviewed by David Hirschman
