DURING the first split second of existence, an extraordinary force stretched the universe from a cramped sub-microscopic speck into the forerunner of the spacious cosmos we now inhabit. Or at least that's what cosmologists would have us believe. This theory, known as inflation, can explain a number of puzzling features about the cosmos, such as the fact that one side of the universe looks much the same as the other. Yet despite the enthusiasm, experimental backing for the idea has been thin on the ground.
Last week, however, cosmologists unveiled powerful new support for the theory from observations made by NASA's Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe. "We have evidence that the universe suddenly grew from sub-microscopic to astronomical size in the blink of an eye," says WMAP team leader Charles Bennett of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. If Bennett and his team are right, they have glimpsed what the universe ...
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