On Sat, Dec 15, 2007 at 10:57:19PM -0500, Mario Mendes Jr. wrote:
> I read "Atom: An Odyssey" a few years back.  It tells the story of the
> universe from the perspective of an oxygen atom, the main character of the
> book, how it was born and on through the ages.  In that book, the theory
> described in on in which the universe is born with the big bang, and expands
> forever, at an ever increasing pace.  While not a great book for the
> cosmology aficionado it is a great book for the lay man.  My mom saw me
> reading it once and asked what it was about.  After a quick explanation of
> the subject I noticed that she was interested in it and when I was done I
> gave her the book. She never went past 4th grade in school, but she loved
> the book.  Anyway, getting back to the theory in the book.... The end of the
> book got me all bummed out.  Basically, because the universe is expanding
> faster and faster, eventually, everything is going to get so far away from
> everything else that light will no longer reach anything anywhere.
> Furthermore, as all matter decays, after a very long time, the universe will
> end in a big shiver of cold, with nothing else left but very low energy
> photons traveling through space but never reaching anywhere.

That's one theory. Others include the concept of dark matter/energy
permeating the Universe and having the potential to cause other effects
such as contraction, "The Big Crunch", or cyclic Universe
creation/recreation. Wikipedia has an entry here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_energy#Implications_for_the_fate_of_the_universe

Ultrahard science fiction writer and PhD astrophysicist Stephen Baxter
posits that it may be possible to rip a hole in the space-time continuum
into another universe and escape the inevitiable. Books in the Ring series
discusses the epic battle between humans and ultra advanced races over the
issue.

BAJ
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