TIME TRAVEL

26 September, 2008

TIME TRAVEL

Time travel is the concept of traveling forward and backward to different points in time, much as we do through space.
Unsolved problems in physics: Is time travel theoretically possible? Is it practically possible? If so, what are we to make of the time travel paradoxes, such as going back in time and killing one's own grandfather, etc.?
Humans are in fact always traveling in time in a linear fashion, from the present to the immediate future, inexorably, until death.
Some theories are predicated on the fact that we move forward in time, and both forward and backward in space. Since time and space have been shown to be intrinsically linked, travelling forwards and backwards through time is not a theoretical impossibility.
Currently, traveling at speeds approaching the speed of light can cause time dilation, the effects of which cause the individual traveling to pass through time more slowly. From the perspective of the traveler, external time would be going much faster, causing the traveler, upon stopping, to arrive at a place farther in the future.
Often it is a plot device used in science fiction and many movies and television shows to set a character in a particular time not their own, and

explore the character's interaction with the people and technology of that time - as a kind of culture shock.
Other ramifications explored are change and reactions to it, parallel universes, and alternative history where some little event took place or didn't take place, but causes large changes in the future.
In physics, the concept of time travel has been often used to examine the consequences of physical theories such as special relativity, general relativity and quantum mechanics.
There is no experimental evidence of time travel, and it is not even

well understood whether (let alone how) the current physical theories permit any kind of time travel. Although theories do exist about the possiblity of folding time to hop from one point to another.

Physics

Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity (and, by extension, the General Theory) very explicitly permits a kind of time dilation that would ordinarily be called time travel. The theory holds that, relative to a stationary observer, time appears to pass more slowly for faster-moving bodies: for example, a moving clock will appear to run slow; as a clock approaches the speed of light its hands will appear to nearly stop moving. However, this effect allows "time travel" only toward the future: never backward. It is not typical of science ficti

on, and there is little doubt surrounding its existence; "time travel" will hereafter refer to travel with some degree of freedom into the past or future.
Many in the scientific community believe that time travel is highly unlikely. This belief is largely due to Occam's Razor. Any theory which would allow time travel would require that issues of causality be resolved. What happens if you try to go back in time and kill your grandfather. Also, in the absence of any experimental evidence that time travel exists, it is theoretically simpler to assume that it does not happen. Indeed, Stephen Hawking once suggested that the absence of tourists from the future constitutes a strong argument against the existence of time travel - a variant of the Fermi paradox, with time travelers instead of alien visitors. However, assuming that time travel cannot happen is also interesting to physicists because it opens up the question of why and what physical laws exist to prevent time travel from occurring.

The equivalence of time travel and faster-than-light travel

First of all, if one is able to move information from one point to another faster than light, then according to special relativity, there will be an observer who sees this information transfer as allowing information to travel into the past.
The General Theory of Relativity extends the Special Theory to cover gravity. It does this by postulating that matter "curves" the space in its vicinity. But under relativity, properties of space are fairly interchangeable with properties of time, depending on one's perspective, so that a curved path through space can wind up being a curved path through time. In moderate degrees, this allows two straight lines of different length to connect the same points in space; in extreme degrees, theoretically, it could allow timelines to curve around in a circle and reconnect with their own past.
General relativity describes the universe under a complex system of "field equations," and there exist solutions to these equations that permit what are called "closed time-like curves," and hence time travel into the past. The first and most famous of these was proposed by Kurt Gödel, but all known current examples require the universe to have physical characteristics that it does not appear to have. Whether general relativity forbids closed time-like curves for all realistic conditions is unknown. Most physicists believe that it does, largely because assuming some principle against time travel prevents paradoxical situations from occurring

A proposed time-travel machine using a wormhole would (hypothetically) work something like this: A wormhole is created somehow. One end of the wormhole is accelerated to nearly the speed of light, perhaps with an advanced spaceship, and then brought back to the point of origin. Due to time dilation, the accelerated end of the wormhole has now experienced less subjective passage of time than the stationary end.
An object that goes into the stationary end would come out of the other end in the past relative to the time when it enters. One significant limitation of such a time machine is that it is only possible to go as far back in time as the initial creation of the machine; in essence, it is more of a path through time than it is a device that itself moves through time, and it would not allow the technology itself to be moved backwards in time.
This could provide an alternative explanation for Hawking's observation: a time machine will be built someday, but hasn't been built yet, so the tourists from the future can't reach this far back in time.
Creating a wormhole of a size useful for macroscopic spacecraft, keeping it stable, and moving one end of it around would require significant energy, many orders of magnitude more than the Sun can produce in its lifetime. Construction of a wormhole would also require the existence of a substance known as "exotic matter," or "negative matter", which, while not known to be impossible, is also not known to exist in forms useful for wormhole construction (but see for example the Casimir effect).
Therefore it is unlikely such a device will ever be constructed, even with highly advanced technology. On the other hand, microscopic wormholes could still be useful for sending information back in time.Matt Visser argued in 1993 that the two mouths of a wormhole with such an induced clock difference could not be brought together without inducing quantum field and gravitational effects that would either make the wormhole collapse or the two mouths repel each other. Because of this, the two mouths could not be brought close enough for causality violation to take place.
However, in a 1997 paper, Visser hypothesized that a complex "Roman ring" (named after Tom Roman) configuration of an N number of wormholes arranged in a symmetric polygon could still act as a time machine, although he concludes that this is more likely than not a flaw in classical quantum gravity theory rather than proof that causality violation is possible.

Using massive spinning cylinders

Another approach, developed by Frank Tipler, involves a spinning cylinder. If a cylinder is long, and dense, and spins fast enough about its long axis, then a spaceship flying around the cylinder on a spiral path could travel back in time (or forward, depending on the direction of its spiral). However, the density and speed required is so great that ordinary matter is not strong enough to construct it. A similar device might be built from a cosmic string, but none are known to exist, and it doesn't seem to be possible to create a new cosmic string.
Physicist Robert Forward noted that a naïve application of general relativity to quantum mechanics suggests another way to build a time machine. A heavy atomic nucleus in a strong magnetic field would elongate into a cylinder, whose density and "spin" are enough to build a time machine. Gamma rays projected at it might allow information (not matter) to be sent back in time. However, he pointed out that until we have a single theory combining relativity and quantum mechanics, we will have no idea whether such speculations are nonsense.

Using Quantum Entanglement

Quantum mechanical phenomena such as quantum teleportation, the EPR paradox, or quantum entanglement might appear to create a mechanism that allows for faster-than-light (FTL) communication or time travel, and in fact some interpretations of quantum mechanics such as the Bohm interpretation presumes that some information is being exchanged between particles instantaneously in order to maintain correlations between particles. This effect was referred to as "spooky action at a distance" by Einstein.
Nevertheless, the rules of quantum mechanics curiously appear to prevent an outsider from using these methods to actually transmit useful information, and therefore do not appear to allow for time travel or FTL communication. This misunderstanding seems to be widespread in popular press coverage of quantum teleportation experiments. The assumption that time travel or superluminal communications is impossible allows one to derive interesting results such as the no cloning theorem, and how the rules of quantum mechanics work to preserve causality is an active area of research.

The possibility of paradoxes
The Novikov self-consistency principle and recent calculations by Kip S. Thorne indicate that simple masses passing through time travel wormholes could never engender paradoxes - there are no initial conditions that lead to paradox once time travel is introduced. If his results can be generalized they would suggest, curiously, that none of the supposed paradoxes formulated in time travel stories can actually be formulated at a precise physical level: that is, that any situation you can set up in a time travel story turns out to permit many consistent solutions. The circumstances might, however, turn out to be almost unbelievably strange.
Parallel universes might provide a way out of paradoxes. Everett's many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics suggests that all possible quantum events can occur in mutually exclusive histories. These alternate, or parallel histories would form a branching tree symbolizing all possible outcomes of any interaction.
Since all possibilities exist, any paradoxes can be explained by having the paradoxical events happening in a different universe. This concept is most often used in science-fiction. However, in actuality, physicists believe that such interaction or interference between these histories is not possible.
Time travel and the anthropic principle
It has been suggested by physicists such as Max Tegmark that the absence of time travel and the existence of causality may be due to the anthropic principle. The argument is that a universe which allows for time travel and closed time-like loops is one in which intelligence could not evolve because it would be impossible for a being to sort events into a past and future or to make predictions or comprehend the world around them.
Note that this imposes no restriction on supernatural agents (e.g. God) which are not confined by the bounds of spacetime. See the next section for details.
Time Travel and Religion

Prophecy and theology

It is interesting to note that any religion which postulates the existence of fulfilled prophecy requires, at the very least, an agent which can move information from the future into the past.
In Christian theology, for example, God is assumed to exist unbound by space or time. Doctrinally, God is held to be omniscient and omnipresent. Statements in the Bible such as Jesus's claim "before Abraham was born, I am" (John 8:58) and Peter's claim "[Jesus] was chosen before the creation of the world" (1 Peter 1:20) (assuming the creation of the world began at t = 0) imply that God does not occupy the same timeline that we do. This is further supported by the assertion "I the LORD do not change" (Malachi 3:6), since change requires movement along, and constrained by, a temporal continuum.
Two popular interpretations of these statements are that God exists outside the space-time continuum; or exists at every point in space-time simultaneously. In either case, God can transfer information from one point in space-time to any other point without restriction.
Transcending time through ancient wisdom
The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali have been considered by some, such as physicist Fred Alan Wolf in his book, The Yoga of Time Travel to describe an inner process by which we can access knowledge of the past and future in the present. This form of time travel can be acquired by transcending the five Earthly anchors of the ego mind which otherwise leave us locked into the illusory self.
Time Travel in Fiction

Literature
H. G. Wells' The Time Machine is considered the literary masterpiece of the genre. Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court is another early time travel classic.
Probably the most elaborate demonstrations of supposed time travel paradoxes are in Robert A. Heinlein's All You Zombies and By His Bootstraps.
One very well known time travel fiction writer is Jack Finney. His novels include Time and Again, From Time to Time, The Third Level, among others.
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J. K. Rowling features a time travel paradox as does the film version.
Michael Crichton's Timeline, in which characters travel to 14th century France, describes time travel in great detail, explaining the science of exactly how the time machine works. The book was made into a movie in 2004, with much of the science explanation missing.
- Continued Wikipedia

Articles in the News ...

Civil War Watch Stopped Suddenly; Sub End Still Unknown National Geographic - December 17, 2007
Time is running out - literally, says scientist Telegraph - December 20, 2007
Why Time Seems to Slow Down in Emergencies Live Science - December 12, 2007 In The Matrix, the hero Neo could dodge bullets because ...
Falling, Falling - Preception of time Live Science - December 12, 2007
Could Physicists Make A Time Machine? It All Depends On Curving Space-time Science Daily - August 23, 2007

New model 'permits time travel' BBC - June 17, 2005
Wormhole 'no use' for time travel BBC - May 23, 2005
Time Travel and Metaphysics

12 Around 1
Man has always sought a way to travel through time. We move through the loops of time as they spiral from reality to reality. By this is not a physical event more the movement of consciousness through a matrix of grid realities that has not boundaries. Reality is a virtual learning experience in which linear time is used to create programs of emotions.
Reality looks much like the Slinky Effect'
in which all experiences are happening simultaneously.
Reality is created by a consciousness program that we call source or god or whatever definition you wish to give to this creational energies. In third dimension, this source of white light projected a program in which it experiences - in which we all experience. the based was based on a geometry as all things in 3D follow the same patterns that merely repeat in patterns over and over and are called time.
From that consciousness - 12 pyramids of light burst forth surrounding that source creational consciousness.
The source created what you might call a programs of experience, which it projected - as in in rays of light - to the 12 pyramids. They in turn connect with each other and to the source (the Spider Web Effect).
They create a matrix, grid, hall of record, akashic record, in which the sources could experience.
The source created sparks of light made of the same 'matter' as itself, therefore all souls experience from the same source and remain connected to it.
The Matrix multiplies into an endless number of programs, based on sound, light and color frequencies. Everything is about energy and frequency brought forth in different realities of experience. The souls are now free to wander the grids as if within the slinky - experiencing in one or more places.
There is a reality called 'third dimension' which is near the bottom of the spiral. It is created by synchronicistic movements - as if the gears of of a watch - which work together to bring movement and reality.
Third dimension is created electromagnetic energies - meaning they have polarity - the positive and negative - opposites - duality - male/female - yin/yang, etc.
Third dimension - 3D - references pyramidal energies - 3. Time, and the apparent movement of time, is connected to the number 12 - which is 1+2 =3 - or third dimension.

If you take the shape to the pyramid -triangle and place a matching opposite on top so that their apexes touch, you have the hourglass.
This represents 'As is above, so is below.' Emerald Tablets of Thoth.Hermes Trismegistus (three)
Three is the number that allows things to come manifest in physical expression - as you are combining sound, light and color frequencies to create a reality. To become invisible you remove one of these ingredients removing your experience from the concet of Time.
This is more easily understood when considering dreamtime, meditation, or remote viewing, in which the concept of Time no longer exists.
In our present timeline the concept of Time appears to most of us to be moving faster.
The 'gears' that create the illusion of time are breaking down - like gears on a watch slowing down as the battery that supplies their EM energies is running out.
If you view this as through the Slinky Effect - the bottom of the slinky is loosing its integrity, thus soul consciousness is moving out of third dimension into a higher spiral or loop.
As time slows down - it appears to us that it is escalating. The collapse of the synchronicity-time grids moves us into faster-higher moving frequencies - so time appears to move faster. If you feel time is 'fleeting' you are moving up the spiral of consciousness 'right on cue'.
Many of us are actually experiencing unexplained temporal anomalies - missing time - that has nothing to do with mind control, mental illness, nor alien abductions. those of us who work with Time - can see the the loops (hiccups) that occur all the time.
Time and physical reality are not fixed. They are static appearing fuild - oftne referred to as the collective flow of the unconscious mind.
Now the question arises - how do we - in third dimension - take out boides with us through physical space and time? Some say time travel can be accomplished by shifting one's conscious. Others say it can be done with a device of some kind.

The objective being - to consciously be aware of the experience and to be able to manipulate it at the physical level. This involves the study of Quantum Physics.
During World War II both the Nazis and the Americans experimented with time travel. The Philadelphia Experiment - originally an invisibility project - involved travel through both time and space. Supposedly a naval battle ship mved through time and space from 1943 - to 1983 - then back to 1943 - their 'point of origin' - yet in a fluid reality that 'point of orgin' must be compensated for as it changes. The results of the experiment were horrific. Personally, I know of no one who has successfully built a time machine that can take them back and forth through time - though I am sure it can be done. There are interdimensional portals / vortexes on the physical planet - particularly at the major grid points - where one can travel in time - but these are not controlled experiences. These grids points are based on the geometry of the planet and follow the same patterns as everything else in our current 3D Experience / Program. Example: The Bermuda Triangle.
Time - Clocks - Gears - Digits that repeat in patterns

Cycles of Time - Synchronicity - Sacred Geometry

HOW WAS EARTH FORMED?

HOW WAS EARTH FORMED?

Planet Earth was formed 4.6 billion years ago from the same nebula cloud of gas and dust that the Sun and the other planets were formed (similar to the one pictured to the left). However, Earth then was very different from Earth now, and it would have been impossible for life to exist on it. In fact, it is only quite recently in the Earth's 4,600,000,000 year long life that life, resembling modern-day life, has been possible, first with the dinosaurs over 200,000,000 years ago and now with humans and other animals. The Earth is still being formed now. It still has a molten centre which causes volcanoes to ocassionally erupt, and plates on the surface are constantly "swimming" meaning that they collide with other plates and cause earthquakes. On this page, we will look at how Earth settled to become like the planet it is now.

4,000,000,000 Years Ago

This is an artist's impression of what Earth looked like 4 billion years ago. The planet has no oxygen in its atmosphere and no ozone layer, so poisonous ultraviolet rays from the Sun hit the surface directly. The molten centre of the planet is still extremely hot, and volcanoes erupt constantly, forming the mountains and landscapes of the planet. Water droplets, contained in the planet's atmosphere, cannot settle as liquid or ice because the surface is so hot.

1,000,000,000 Years Ago

The planet has cooled and volcanic eruptions are less common. Water is now allowed to settle, and forms oceans. Green algae forms in the water, which photosynthesises and produces oxygen which is put into the air. The oxygen forms a layer of ozone which protects the Earth from poisonous ultraviolet rays from the Sun. Land drifts apart to begin forming continents.

400,000,000 Years Ago

Life begins developing in the form of trees and plants. These produce more oxygen. Earth has a cooler temperature, with changeable weather. This weather (rain, snow, wind, frost) causes the tops of the ancient volcanoes to wear away, creating lower ground. Dinosaurs eventually develop, ruling the planet. Flowers are later formed, along with insects.

65,000,000 Years Ago

Life was wiped off the face of the planet! It is believed that a huge meteorite hit the Earth's surface, causing clouds of dust which suffocated the dinosaurs and other creatures on the planet. Conditions on the planet were suffocating as poisonous chemicals were unable to leave the planet's atmosphere, and life-giving energy from the Sun could not enter. After settling again, the Earth was suitable for life, an the ancestors of human beings developed.

Today

Earth is still developing. Volcanoes still erupt, the earth still shakes, weather still forms landscapes. Creatures evolve. Some die out, some develop. The creatures that die out do so because they are not suitable for the planet's current conditions. Creatures that survive and flourish do so because they are more adapted to the new conditions. Nobody knows what the future holds. The air is becoming more polluted, and the temperature on the planet is gradually increasing. Earth's protective ozone is wearing away. Earth remains a target for meteors, comets and asteroids travelling through space. There is always a chance that one may hit the planet eventually and destroy life as we know it. Perhaps, the planet will be reborn again as the dust settles.

Origin of Life

Origin of Life - Spontaneous GenerationFor millennia,

the Origin of Life was thought to be the result of Abiogenesis (also known as "Spontaneous Generation"). The doctrine of Spontaneous Generation holds that organic life could and does arise from inorganic matter. As late as the 17th century, there were recipes to "create" life. Take sweaty rags, wrap them around wheat, and set them in an open jar. In 21 days, you'll "create" mice. For rats, just throw garbage in the street. In a few days, rats will take the place of the garbage. All over the world, in Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas, mankind was formulating recipes for "creating" bees, lice, scorpions, maggots, worms, frogs, etc. In 1668, Francesco Redi publicly opposed the idea of Spontaneous Generation. While it was generally accepted that rotting meat generated maggots, Redi disagreed. He maintained that maggots hatched from eggs laid by flies. To test his hypothesis, Redi performed one of the first known experiments to utilize a "control group." Thus began both the death of Spontaneous Generation and the birth of the modern era of scientific development. Redi placed meat in three flasks -- one open, one sealed and one covered with gauze. Maggots appeared in the open flask, as the flies were able to reach the meat. Maggots did not appear in the sealed flask or the flask covered by gauze. At the time, this experiment was not thought to disprove Spontaneous Generation. It merely proved that maggots did not come from meat.
Origin of Life - Louis Pasteur

Spontaneous Generation was thought to be the Origin of Life until the late 1850's. It wasn't until Frenchman Louis Pasteur that this fallacy was finally disproved. In 1859, the French Academy of Science sponsored a Science Fair, the goal being to prove or disprove Spontaneous Generation. Young Pasteur's award winning experiment was a clever variation of earlier experiments performed by John Needham (1713-1781) and Lazzaro Spallanzani (1729-1799). Pasteur filled a long necked flask with meat broth. He then heated the glass neck and bent it into an "S" shape. Air could reach the broth, but gravity acted to trap airborne microorganisms in the curve of the neck. He then boiled the broth. After a time, no microorganisms had formed in the broth. When the flask was tipped so that the broth reached the microorganisms trapped in the neck, the broth quickly became cloudy with microscopic life. Thus, Pasteur disproved Spontaneous Generation. Furthermore, Pasteur proved that some microorganisms are airborne.
Origin of Life - Origin of Species and Modern Day Science Class

Spontaneous Generation was disproved as the Origin of Life in 1859. Ironically, it was this same year that Charles Darwin's Origin of Species was published. From this work arose the modern evolutionary movement, which is now thought to have occurred in six phases: (1) Cosmic Evolution (the origin of space, time, matter and energy from nothing); (2) Chemical Evolution (the development of the higher elements from hydrogen); (3) Stellar and Planetary Evolution (the origin of stars and planets); (4) Organic Evolution (the origin of organic life from a rock); (5) Macro Evolution (the origin of major kinds); and (6) Micro Evolution (the variation within the kinds). Only the sixth phase has been observed and documented. The first five are merely assumed. Interestingly, the fourth assumption is the old doctrine of Spontaneous Generation - organic life developing from inorganic matter (a rock). The sadly comical result is that some modern day textbooks devote a chapter to the work of Francesco Redi and Louis Pasteur, and their success in disproving Spontaneous Generation. Then, a few chapters later, school kids are taught that Spontaneous Generation is the Origin of Life.



Origin of Life - Evolutionary Theory

Why are children taught Spontaneous Generation as the Origin of Life, despite the apparent contradiction to empirical science? The fallacy continues in the textbooks mainly due to the efforts of a few zealous and influential evolutionists. They have been quite successful in blatantly ignoring this issue. Besides Spontaneous Generation, evolutionists continue to avoid several other problems with their theory. Here are just two significant examples: (1) Cosmic Evolution (the first assumption listed above), also known as the "Big Bang," is not an acceptable theory of Origins. The Big Bang Theory does not explain the uneven distribution of original matter that results in "voids" and "clumps", nor can it explain the reality of retrograde motion without violating the Law of Conservation of Angular Momentum. Furthermore, the Big Bang does not address the major question, "where did everything come from?" Did nothing explode? How did this explosion cause order, while every explosion observed in actual history causes only disorder and disarray? Consequently, the Big Bang also violates two out of three Laws of Thermodynamics. (2) Macro Evolution (the fifth assumption listed above) has been refuted by the lack of transitional fossils in the fossil record, and the harmful trend of genetic mutation (a beneficial mutation is yet to be observed). Actually, none of the five assumed evolutionary phases amount to anything more than "fairy tales," and imagination has no part in science. The result is that many modern day science classes don't educate our children, they indoctrinate them.
Origin of Life - Notable Quotes

Here are a few illuminating quotes that illustrate the controversy regarding the Evolutionary Model for the Origin of Life:
"I myself am convinced that the theory of evolution, especially the extent to which it's been applied, will be one of the great jokes in the history books of the future. Posterity will marvel that so flimsy and dubious an hypothesis could be accepted with the incredible credulity that it has." Malcolm Muggeridge, journalist and philosopher (Pascal Lectures, University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada).
"Scientists who go about teaching that evolution is a fact of life are great con-men, and the story they are telling may be the greatest hoax ever. In explaining evolution, we do not have one iota of fact." Dr. T. N. Tahmisian, Atomic Energy Commission, USA.
"Darwinian science inevitably will, and should have, legal, political and moral consequences." L. Tiger, an anthropologist at Rutgers (as presented in Scientific American, October 1995, pg. 181).

25 September, 2008

Origin of the Universe - Theism vs. Atheism

In general, theists attribute the origin of the universe to some sort of transcendent, intelligent Designer. Atheists envision a natural, undirected process by which universes spring into existence spontaneously. Prior to the 20th century most atheists believed the universe was eternal. This changed however as discoveries throughout the 20th Century rendered that view untenable. Einstein’s theory of gravity (which has been thoroughly validated by extensive experimental confirmation) and Hubble’s astronomical observations preclude an eternal universe. We now know beyond a reasonable doubt that the universe began at some point in the finite past. Now we understand that there are only two legitimate options for the origin of the universe:

(1) Someone made the universe (Intelligent Design), or
(2) The universe made itself (Random Chance).

The third option, the universe has always been here, is no longer a feasible alternative -- it contradicts empirical science. No other scientifically plausible theories for the origin of the universe have ever been proposed. The implications of various 20th century discoveries have put atheists in an awkward position. Logic now requires that they identify an uncontrolled mechanism by which the universe could have initiated, designed, created and developed itself without an Intelligent Director. Otherwise, intellectual honesty requires the necessity of a Creator God.

Origin of the Universe - The Big Bang Theory
So began the effort to propose an atheistic mechanism for the origin of the universe. Enter the Big Bang Theory and Darwinian Evolution. The original Big Bang Theory seeks to explain the sudden appearance of everything from nothing, while Darwinian Evolution seeks to explain the origin of complex life forms from their supposed simpler ancestors. The premise of the Big Bang is that the entire universe was compacted into a teeny tiny little ball, which, after randomly coming into existence for no apparent reason in the first place, exploded into all space, time, matter and energy in an instant. Yes, that's the theory. No Ph.D. required. Origin of the Universe - The Inflation Universe Theories
The Big Bang Theory provided an atheistic explanation for the origin of the universe, but its obvious simplicity was subject to multiple attacks. As a result, the original theory is no longer the dominant scientific explanation for the atheistic origin of the universe. While the original Big Bang Theory is now "dead," from its ashes have emerged the various Inflationary Universe Theories (IUTs). Starting with Alan Guth in the late 1990's (The Inflationary Universe: The Quest for a New Theory of Cosmic Origins), the scientific community has now proposed roughly 50 different IUT variants. Scientists hope that one of the current IUTs will sire an accurate reconstruction of the birth of our universe, though it is universally acknowledged that all of the current IUTs have their problems. It seems the only way to get realistic calculations to match an IUT model is to make assumptions that are poorly justified.
Origin of the Universe - Post "Bang" Problems
The IUTs are essentially no better an attempt to explain the origin of the universe without God than the Big Bang. The primary differences between the IUTs and the original Big Bang Theory are really pre-bang explanations. What happened just prior to the explosion? What happened during the first millisecond of the explosion? For instance, some of the IUTs have included a concept called the 'epoch of inflation' to explain the dynamic first millisecond after the Bang. However, the basic premise of all these theory variants is the same -- the universe was compacted into a little cosmic ball that subsequently exploded with a big bang into everything that exists today. Thus, the IUTs share the same post-bang problems that plague the original Big Bang Theory. These problems include violations of established Natural Laws, such as:
(i) The Law of Causality (observed effects require a related cause),

(ii) The Law of Conservation of Angular Momentum (observed phenomena like retrograde motion in our solar system are impossible without an intervening cause), and

(iii) The Laws of Thermodynamics (Conservation of Matter/energy and Increased Entropy). In addition, the Big Bang/iUTs are unable to explain a limitless list of other issues related to cosmological, chemical, stellar, planetary and biological causation, order and design. Where did all that matter and energy come from in the first place? What caused its initial release? How did this explosion of everything (from nothing) order itself? How can simplicity become complexity? Where did the chemical elements come from? Where did the mathematical laws and physical properties come from? How do we explain the fine-tuning inherent in spiral galaxies, solar systems and stars? How do you explain the existence of both voids and clumps in our cosmos? Where did the first rock come from? How did life come from a rock? Where did the information code for all biologic forms come from? Where did the language convention that interprets that code come from?…

Origin of the Universe - Long Ago and Far Away...
Attempts to exclude a Creator from the "origin of the universe equation" have been long on theoretical calculations and short on common sense. The various models merely move the questions of where, why and how did everything get here to "long ago and far away." Atheists are tenacious in their efforts to ignore the necessity of a First Cause, Intelligent Designer, Creator God. But as Aldous Huxley put it so eloquently, "Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored." And it seems that atheists must ignore a great deal in order to maintain their atheistic cosmogonic position. Is the entire universe really the result of an accidental explosion of nothing? Is the design and irreducible complexity of all living systems really the result of random chance? Where is the so-called "evolutionary mechanism"? 21st century "science" has declared that anything sounding "supernatural" is entirely off limits. Yet, by common sense definition, "science" based on the Big Bang and IUTs must suspend and/or violate established natural laws. In effect, atheistic science must use "supernatural" means to justify its atheistic presupposition. Prior to the last 150 years, and the recent campaign to exclude God in the scientific fields, scientists as a general rule believed in God. As a matter of fact, the founders of a majority of the scientific disciplines were Theists. These men took pride in the idea that they were "thinking God's thoughts after Him." Please consider these final thoughts... If everything is an accident, there's no reason to figure anything out. If everything is futile, purpose is an imaginary concept. But if everything was created, and if everything has a purpose, shouldn't it be the underlying goal of all mankind to discover that Creator and find that purpose? And so we endeavor to discover our Creator and fulfill our purpose, while using science as merely one of our tools.

Big Bang Theory

Big Bang Theory - The Premise

The Big Bang theory is an effort to explain what happened at the very beginning of our universe. Discoveries in astronomy and physics have shown beyond a reasonable doubt that our universe did in fact have a beginning. Prior to that moment there was nothing; during and after that moment there was something: our universe. The big bang theory is an effort to explain what happened during and after that moment.
According to the standard theory, our universe sprang into existence as "singularity" around 13.7 billion years ago. What is a "singularity" and where does it come from? Well, to be honest, we don't know for sure. Singularities are zones which defy our current understanding of physics. They are thought to exist at the core of "black holes." Black holes are areas of intense gravitational pressure. The pressure is thought to be so intense that finite matter is actually squished into infinite density (a mathematical concept which truly boggles the mind). These zones of infinite density are called "singularities." Our universe is thought to have begun as an infinitesimally small, infinitely hot, infinitely dense, something - a singularity. Where did it come from? We don't know. Why did it appear? We don't know.
After its initial appearance, it apparently inflated (the "Big Bang"), expanded and cooled, going from very, very small and very, very hot, to the size and temperature of our current universe. It continues to expand and cool to this day and we are inside of it: incredible creatures living on a unique planet, circling a beautiful star clustered together with several hundred billion other stars in a galaxy soaring through the cosmos, all of which is inside of an expanding universe that began as an infinitesimal singularity which appeared out of nowhere for reasons unknown. This is the Big Bang theory.
Big Bang Theory - Common Misconceptions

There are many misconceptions surrounding the Big Bang theory. For example, we tend to imagine a giant explosion. Experts however say that there was no explosion; there was (and continues to be) an expansion. Rather than imagining a balloon popping and releasing its contents, imagine a balloon expanding: an infinitesimally small balloon expanding to the size of our current universe.
Another misconception is that we tend to image the singularity as a little fireball appearing somewhere in space. According to the many experts however, space didn't exist prior to the Big Bang. Back in the late '60s and early '70s, when men first walked upon the moon, "three British astrophysicists, Steven Hawking, George Ellis, and Roger Penrose turned their attention to the Theory of Relativity and its implications regarding our notions of time. In 1968 and 1970, they published papers in which they extended Einstein's Theory of General Relativity to include measurements of time and space.1, 2 According to their calculations, time and space had a finite beginning that corresponded to the origin of matter and energy."3 The singularity didn't appear in space; rather, space began inside of the singularity. Prior to the singularity, nothing existed, not space, time, matter, or energy - nothing. So where and in what did the singularity appear if not in space? We don't know. We don't know where it came from, why it's here, or even where it is. All we really know is that we are inside of it and at one time it didn't exist and neither did we.
Big Bang Theory - Evidence for the Theory

What are the major evidences which support the Big Bang theory?

• First of all, we are reasonably certain that the universe had a beginning.


• Second, galaxies appear to be moving away from us at speeds proportional to their distance. This is called "Hubble's Law," named after Edwin Hubble (1889-1953) who discovered this phenomenon in 1929. This observation supports the expansion of the universe and suggests that the universe was once compacted.


• Third, if the universe was initially very, very hot as the Big Bang suggests, we should be able to find some remnant of this heat. In 1965, Radioastronomers Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson discovered a 2.725 degree Kelvin (-454.765 degree Fahrenheit, -270.425 degree Celsius) Cosmic Microwave Background radiation (CMB) which pervades the observable universe. This is thought to be the remnant which scientists were looking for. Penzias and Wilson shared in the 1978 Nobel Prize for Physics for their discovery.


• Finally, the abundance of the "light elements" Hydrogen and Helium found in the observable universe are thought to support the Big Bang model of origins.

Big Bang Theory - The Only Plausible Theory?

Is the standard Big Bang theory the only model consistent with these evidences? No, it's just the most popular one. Internationally renown Astrophysicist George F. R. Ellis explains: "People need to be aware that there is a range of models that could explain the observations….For instance, I can construct you a spherically symmetrical universe with Earth at its center, and you cannot disprove it based on observations….You can only exclude it on philosophical grounds. In my view there is absolutely nothing wrong in that. What I want to bring into the open is the fact that we are using philosophical criteria in choosing our models. A lot of cosmology tries to hide that."4
In 2003, Physicist Robert Gentry proposed an attractive alternative to the standard theory, an alternative which also accounts for the evidences listed above.5 Dr. Gentry claims that the standard Big Bang model is founded upon a faulty paradigm (the Friedmann-lemaitre expanding-spacetime paradigm) which he claims is inconsistent with the empirical data. He chooses instead to base his model on Einstein's static-spacetime paradigm which he claims is the "genuine cosmic Rosetta." Gentry has published several papers outlining what he considers to be serious flaws in the standard Big Bang model.6 Other high-profile dissenters include Nobel laureate Dr. Hannes Alfvén, Professor Geoffrey Burbidge, Dr. Halton Arp, and the renowned British astronomer Sir Fred Hoyle, who is accredited with first coining the term "the Big Bang" during a BBC radio broadcast in 1950.
Big Bang Theory - What About God?

Any discussion of the Big Bang theory would be incomplete without asking the question, what about God? This is because cosmogony (the study of the origin of the universe) is an area where science and theology meet. Creation was a supernatural event. That is, it took place outside of the natural realm. This fact begs the question: is there anything else which exists outside of the natural realm? Specifically, is there a master Architect out there? We know that this universe had a beginning. Was God the "First Cause"? We won't attempt to answer that question in this short article. We just ask the question:
Does God Exist?

THE FORMATION OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM

THE FORMATION OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM

Nobody knows for sure how the universe, its galaxies and their many millions of solar systems formed. We do have ways of looking back in time (in fact, every time we look at the Sun, we are looking eight minutes back in time!). This is because it takes light eight minutes to travel from the Sun to Earth. More distant stars may be hundreds of light years away, so when we look at them, we are seeing them as they were hundreds of years ago. However, we are not yet able to look back in time far enough to see how the universe actually began. But, we are able to watch the formation of other stars and know that, millions of years ago, the Sun began its life in a similar way.
Stars are born in swirlling clouds of dust and gas called nebulae. The tiny particles (called "matter") of this huge cloud combine with each other, forming a large star at the centre and planets surrounding it. It is believed that the Solar System, with its Sun, planets, moons, comets, asteroids and meteors formed in a similar way. To demonstrate the formation of a Solar System, join myself and my dog, Bobsdog, in our Cosmic Kitchen.

COOKERY WITH BOB THE ALIEN

Right, here we are in our Cosmic Kitchen. Today, we're going to make a Solar System. This will only take a few billion years, but I'm sure the results will be worth the wait. Once we've done that, I'll tell you how to make Shepherds Pie.
Today's Recipe: A Solar System. Tomorrow's Recipe: Shepherds Pie
Ingredients: Billions of billions of billions of tiny particles of dust, ice, rock, liquids and gases. These can be found anywhere, so there's no need to go searching around for years for them. In fact, you're probably surrounded by them right now without realising it!
Cooking time: Approximately 5 billion years

Cooking Instructions:

STEP ONE: Find an outer edge of a galaxy. Make sure you have plenty of space. About 5,000,000,000,000 kilometres wide should be just enough for an average-sized solar system. Spread the mixture of the ingredients (mentioned above) out evenly in this space. Call this mixture a nebula. The pull of the galactical centre of the galaxy should begin the process of stirring the particles in the nebula cloud. So, no need for a whisk! Below is what your mixture should look like by now.
STEP TWO: After a few million years, the moving particles of your nebula should start joining together with other moving particles. You will notice that most of the particles will join together with particles near the middle of the mixture. This is because the centre of the mixture has a strong gravitational pull, strengthened by the constant addition of little particles. The more particles in the centre, the stronger the gravtiational pull. Then, more particles are attracted. Below is what your Solar System should look like by now:

STEP THREE: Heat of the mixture, especially at the centre, begins to increase as more particles get added to it. Eventually, mixture will get so hot at centre that the ball of particles will glow. This is the beginning of your new young star, which will be the centre point of your solar system. Cooking temperature at centre of this star will now be about 10,000,000 degrees celcius. Keep temperature about here and decrease after a while to create a star which could have nine planets orbiting it, maybe one of them with life. Decrease temperature immediately to prolong life of star, but cause it not to have enough heat to power a solar system properly. Or, increase temperature, creating a huge Blue Giant, shining blue, but causing it to have a shorter shelf-life (lasting only about one million years!).
STEP FOUR: While star is cooking at centre of solar system, monitor process of rest of solar system. Notice that your early nebula cloud is becoming less cloud-like and more separated into chunks. Notice how particles gather near the part between your star and the edge of the solar system, forming large balls of gas, although not large enough to be stars. Notice also that, between these and your new star, particles are gathering to form smaller, rockier worlds. You will name these objects planets. These planets all seem to spin round the star at the centre, with bigger clumps of dust smashing into them all the time.
STEP FIVE: As star brightens and gives off heat, cool down cooking temperature. This will cool down the temperature of the newly-formed planets, which have now begun orbiting the new star. These new planets are also now large enough to have strong gravitational pulls of their very own, causing smaller collections of particles to spin around them. These smaller collections of particles will be known as moons.
STEP SIX: After about 4 to 4.5 billion years, ensure that star is about average temperature. This means that it is causing temperatures at its nearest planet to be around 350°c and temperatures at its most distant planet to be around -230°c. Also ensure that all planets are spread out so that they have interesting individual features, so that people designing websites about them in the future can have something interesting to say about each one.
STEP SEVEN: After about 5 billion years, all planets should be settled in an orbit around the star, about half way through its age before it passes its best-before date. Some planets will still be forming, and so will some of their moons. Some may even have things living on them. It all depends on how the gases mixed together during the early cookery process.

By now, you should have your very own working Solar System. Eventually, the temperature of your star at the centre of it will burn up and swell into a red giant. This star will become so big that it will swallow the Inner Planets of your Solar System, but heat up any Outer Planets. Eventually, you'll run out of gas and the star will cool down, becoming a white dwarf, being smaller and cooler than it was once during its life time. As it cools further, it'll become a black dwarf or, if it was once a supergiant (a supernova), explode, fling out its gassy contents, and become an invisible pull of gravity, or Black Hole, sucking in the mass around it. This means that, once you've finished with your star, it'll vacuum up its own solar system, saving you the responsibility! Below is a picture of the explosion caused by a supernova (a star collapsing in on itself)

How did the Earth Get Here?

How did the Earth Get Here?

Clues to the Formation of the Solar System:

• Inner planets are small and dense.


• Outer planets are large and have low density.


• Satellites of the outer planets are made mostly of ices .


• Cratered surfaces are everywhere in the Solar System.


• Saturn has such a low density that it can't be solid anywhere.

Formation of the Earth by accretion:
Initial solar nebula consists of mixtures of grains (rock) and ices. The initial ratio is about 90% ices and 10% grains
The sun is on so there is a temperature gradient in this mixture:
In the inner part of the solar system, only things which exist as a solid at high temperature are available (so how come there is so much water on the earth? -- answer later)
So in the inner part of the solar system you can only make a rocky planet via acretion of grains.
In the outer part of the solar system, ices can exist so you can make larger planets out of the more abundant ices
Jupiter (mostly H and He) formed in a manner similar to the Sun, that is not by accretion. Note that Jupiter can never become a star. A star is a ball of gas sufficiently hot to excite nuclear reactions .

The minimum mass require for this is about 8% the mass of the Sun. Jupiter's mass is an order of magnitude below this limit. Jupiter will never be a star.

Jupiter has a large mass and perturbs orbits of objects near them. There were lots of these objects scattered between Jupiter and Pluto.
Jupiter redirected some of this cometary material into the inner solar system and most of the earth's water was delivered through comet bombardment (therefore would we be here without Jupiter?)
Steps in the accretion process :
Step 1: accretion of cm sized particles

Step 2: Physical Collision on km scale

Step 3: Gravitational accretion on 10-100 km scale Step 4: Molten protoplanet from the heat of accretion
Final step is differentiation of the earth: Light objects float; heavy objects sink. Iron-Nickel Core (magnetic field) and oxygen-silicon crust
In the outer part of the solar system, the same 4 step process of accretion occurred but it was accretion of ices (cometisemals) instead of grains.


Things to note about the formation of planets via accretion

• There is a lot of heat dissipated in the final accretion process resulting in initially molten objects


• Any molten object of size greater than about 500 km has sufficient gravity to cause gravitational separation of light and heavy elements thus producing a differentiated body


• The accretion process is inefficient, there is lots of left over debris.


• In the inner part of the solar system, the leftover rocky debris cratered the surfaces of the newly formed planets.


• In the outer part of the solar system, much of the leftover rocky debris was ejected from the solar system due to the large masses of the planets which formed there. Some of this material was ejected into a large "Comet Cloud" which has a distance of about 100,000 AU from the Sun and some of the leftover debris ( beyond Pluto) could not be ejected (as it was far away from Uranus and Neptune) and hence remained there. This material is known as the Kuiper Belt and it was recently discovered by the Hubble Space Telescope
  More information on the Kuiper belt and the kinds of objects that are located there can be found here
  The asteroid belt represents a relic of the accretion process. A planet tried to form in that location but the gravitational influence of the large mass planet Jupiter was sufficient to accelerate the material there to high velocity. High velocity collisions between chunks of rocks cause them to be shattered and indeed, over the history of the solar system, the sizes of the largest asteroids are decreasing. The asteroid belt is not the remains of a planet that was blown up by the Death Star.

How Old Is the Earth?

How Old Is the Earth ?



In the very beginning of earth's history, this planet was a giant, red hot, roiling, boiling sea of molten rock - a magma ocean. The heat had been generated by the repeated high speed collisions of much smaller bodies of space rocks that continually clumped together as they collided to form this planet. As the collisions tapered off the earth began to cool, forming a thin crust on its surface. As the cooling continued, water vapor began to escape and condense in the earth's early atmosphere. Clouds formed and storms raged, raining more and more water down on the primitive earth, cooling the surface further until it was flooded with water, forming the seas.
It is theorized that the true age of the earth is about 4.6 billion years old, formed at about the same time as the rest of our solar system. The oldest rocks geologists have been able to find are 3.9 billion years old. Using radiometric dating methods to determine the age of rocks means scientists have to rely on when the rock was initially formed (as in - when its internal minerals first cooled). In the infancy of our home planet the entire earth was molten (melted) rock, a magma ocean.
Since we can only measure as far back in time as we had solid rock on this planet, we are limited in how we can measure the real age of the earth. Due to the forces of plate tectonics, our planet is also a very dynamic one; new mountains forming, old ones wearing down, volcanoes melting and reshaping new crust. The continual changing and reshaping of the earth's surface that involves the melting down and reconstructing of old rock has pretty much eliminated most of the original rocks that came with earth when it was newly formed. So the age is a theoretical age.
When Did Life on Earth Begin?
Scientists are still trying to unravel one of the greatest mysteries of earth: When did "life" first appear and how did it happen? It is estimated that the first life forms on earth were primitive, one-celled creatures that appeared about 3 billion years ago. That's pretty much all there was for about the next two billion years. Then suddenly those single celled organisms began to evolve into multicellular organisms. Then an unprecedented profusion of life in incredibly complex forms began to fill the oceans. Some crawled from the seas and took residence on land, perhaps to escape predators in the ocean. A cascading chain of new and increasingly differentiated forms of life appeared all over the planet, only to be virtually annihilated by an unexplained mass extinction. It would be the first of several mass extinctions in Earth's history.

Where do Gemstones come from?
Scientists have been looking increasingly to space to explain these mass extinctions that have been happening almost like clockwork since the beginning of "living" time. Perhaps we've been getting periodically belted by more space rocks (ie. asteroids), or the collision of neutron stars happening too close for comfort? Each time a mass extinction occurred, life found a way to come back from the brink. Life has tenaciously clung to this small blue planet for the last three billion years. Scientists are finding new cues as to how life first began on earth in some really interesting places - the deep ocean.

Checking the Fossil Record

Scientists have studied rocks using radiometric dating methods to determine the age of earth. Another really cool thing they've found in rocks that tells us more about the story of earth's past are the remains of living creatures that have been embedded in the rocks for all time. We call these fossils. It has been the careful study of earth's fossil record that has revealed the exciting picture about the kinds of creatures that once roamed this planet. Fossilized skeletons of enormous creatures with huge claws and teeth, ancient ancestors of modern day species (such as sharks) that have remained virtually unchanged for millions of years, and prehistoric jungles lush with plant life, all point to a profusion of life and a variety of species that continues to populate the earth, even in the face of periodic mass extinctions.
By studying the fossil record scientists have determined that the earth has experienced very different climates in the past. In fact, general climactic conditions, as well as existing species, are used to define distinct geologic time periods in earth's history. For example, periodic warming of the earth - during the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods - created a profusion of plant and animal life that left behind generous organic materials from their decay. These layers of organic material built up over millions of years undisturbed. They were eventually covered by younger, overlying sediment and compressed, giving us fossil fuels such as coal, petroleum and natural gas.
Alternately, the earth's climate has also experienced periods of extremely cold weather for such prolonged periods that much of the surface was covered in thick sheets of ice. These periods of geologic time are called ice ages and the earth has had several in its history. Entire species of warmer-climate species died out during these time periods, giving rise to entirely new species of living things which could tolerate and survive in the extremely cold climate. Believe it or not, humans were around during the last ice age - the Holocene (about 11,500 years ago) - and we managed to survive. Creatures like the Woolly Mammoth - a distant relative of modern-day elephants - did not.
Read about a really exciting recent find of a perfectly-preserved, frozen Woolly Mammoth! This was a particularly exciting find because it wasn't a fossil that scientists found, but actual tissue, which still has its DNA record intact.
Also, read more about the Ice Man - another frozen tissue sample of a human being who was frozen into the high mountains of France. He was just recently discovered as thousands of years of ice pack have finally melted from around his body.

Seven reasons the world will end in 2012 - Proven scientifically

Seven reasons the world will end in 2012 - Proven SCIENTIFICALLY

Scientific experts from around the world are genuinely predicting that five years from now, all life on Earth could well finish. Some are saying it’ll be humans that set it off. Others believe that a natural phenomenon will be the cause. And the religious folks are saying it’ll be God himself who presses the stop button…

1. Mayan Calendar:

The first mob to predict 2012 as the end of the world were the Mayans, a bloodthirsty race that were good at two things:
Building highly accurate astrological equipment out of stone andSacrificing Virgins.
Thousands of years ago they managed to calculate the length of the lunar moon as 329.53020 days, only 34 seconds out. The Mayan calendar predicts that the Earth will end on December 21, 2012. Given that they were pretty close to the mark with the lunar cycle, it’s likely they’ve got the end of the world right as well.

2. Sun Storms:

Solar experts from around the world monitoring the sun have made a startling discovery: our sun is in a bit of strife. The energy output of the sun is, like most things in nature, cyclic, and it’s supposed to be in the middle of a period of relative stability. However, recent solar storms have been bombarding the Earth with so much radiation energy, it’s been knocking out power grids and destroying satellites. This activity is predicted to get worse, and calculations suggest it’ll reach its deadly peak sometime in 2012

3. The Atom Smasher:

Scientists in Europe have been building the world’s largest particle accelerator. Basically its a 27km tunnel designed to smash atoms together to find out what makes the Universe tick. However, the mega-gadget has caused serious concern, with some scientists suggesting that it’s properly even a bad idea to turn it on in the first place. They’re predicting all manner of deadly results, including mini black holes. So when this machine is fired up for its first serious experiment in 2012, the world could be crushed into a super-dense blob the size of a basketball.
4. The Bible says…

If having scientists warning us about the end of the world isn’t bad enough,religious folks are getting in on the act aswell. Interpretations of the Christian Bible reveal that the date for Armageddon, the final battle between Good an Evil, has been set down for 2012. The I Ching, also known as the Chinese book of Changes, says the same thing, as do various sections of the Hindu teachings.

5. Super Volcano:

Yellowstone National Park in the United States is famous for its thermal springs and Old Faithful geyser. The reason for this is simple - it’s sitting on top of the world’s biggest volcano, and geological experts are beginning to get nervous sweats. The Yellowstone volcano has a pattern of erupting every 650,000 years or so, and we’re many years overdue for an explosion that will fill the atmosphere with ash, blocking the sun and plunging the Earth into a frozen winter that could last up to 15,000 years. The pressure under the Yellowstone is building steadily, and geologists have set 2012 as a likely date for the big bang.

6. The Physicists

This one’s case of bog-simple maths mathematics. Physicists at Berekely Uni have been crunching the numbers. and they’ve determined that the Earth is well overdue for a major catastrophic event. Even worse, they’re claiming their calculations prove, that we’re all going to die, very soon - while also saying their prediction comes with a certainty of 99 percent- and 2012 just happens to be the best guess as to when it occurs.

7. Slip-Slop-Slap-BANG!

We all know the Earth is surrounded by a magnetic field that sheilds us from most of the sun’s radiation. What you might not know is that the magnetic poles we call north and south have a nasty habit of swapping places every 750,000 years or so - and right now we’re about 30,000 years overdue. Scientists have noted that the poles are drifting apart roughly 20-30kms each year, much faster than ever before, which points to a pole-shift being right around the corner. While the pole shift is underway, the magnetic field is disrupted and will eventually disappear, sometimes for up to 100 years.

The result is enough UV outdoors to crisp your skin in seconds, killing everything it touches.