MAGAZINE OF THE SOCIE TY FOR SCIENCE & THE PUBLIC MAGAZINE OF THE SOCIETY FOR SCIENCE & THE PUBLIC
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Suggesting risky answers
to Top 5 cosmic questions
In the musings of scientists seeking
cosmic secrets, one sentiment frequently
recurs: Questions are more important
than answers.
Ambiguous questions spawn “fruitless
controversy,” the philosopher Bertrand
Russell wrote. Physicist David Bohm
once averred that “half the battle is over
when we know what are the right questions to ask.” And Nobel
laureate Anthony Leggett lamented frustrations in finding the
right questions at the borders between knowledge and igno-
rance: “Where physics tangles with philosophy, the difficulties
usually lie less in finding answers to well-posed questions
than in formulating the fruitful questions in the first place.”
So it is no great surprise that in current efforts to compre-
hend the universe, some grand questions have commanded
more attention than the answers (to lesser questions) that
scientists have recently provided. It’s nice to know how old
the universe is, for instance, and how much of it consists of
ordinary matter. Two decades ago, nobody knew. But this
progress has merely inflated scientific curiosity about the
greater issues that cosmologists have yet to resolve.
In this issue, Science News writers and editors provide a sta-
tus report on the top five cosmic questions of the day, as voted
on by Science News writers and editors. You will not find final
answers to these questions, of course, because otherwise they
would no longer be the top questions. An additional consider-
ation, perhaps, is an old observation by the French historian
Charles Seignobos. “It is useful to ask oneself questions,” he
declared, “but very dangerous to answer them.”
But what the heck. If you really want to know, here are the
answers (none guaranteed):
s s What happened before the Big Bang? Physicists in a pre-
existing universe had just figured out what happened before
their Big Bang — and then tested it.
s s What is the universe made of? Information: The digital
bits that describe matter and energy (dark or otherwise)
aren’t actually the description; it’s matter and energy that
describe the information.
s s Is there a theory of everything? Not yet.
s s Are space and time fundamental? No, but there is not
enough space or time available to explain why.
s s What is the universe’s fate? An unhappy ending. But don’t
worry. The universe will end only after all the great questions have real answers. — Tom Siegfried, Editor in Chief
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