Page 63 - The Origin of Life and the Universe - International Conference 2016

The Origin of Life and the Universe

One of the consequences of the theory of general relativity is that
when you solve the equations, the universe ought to be dynamic either ex-
panding or contracting. Initially Einstein didn't like this idea, but re-mea-
surements in the 1920 and 1930 showed that the universe is indeed
expanding. Edwin Hubble looking out at these fuzzy blobs, they were
called island universes at the time, we now call them galaxies; found that
these galaxies behaved in a very peculiar fashion. The farther away a
galaxy was, the faster it was moving away from us. This is a telltale
signature of an expanding universe. And so general relativity predicted a
dynamic or expanding universe. And the measurements of these distant
galaxies showed that the universe was expanding and if it's expanding
perhaps if you run time backwards there was a beginning.
Now scientists resisted this idea for quite some time and in fact they
still resist it today. And they look for numerous ways to have an eternal
universe, one that it existed forever. But in the 1960, with the measurement
of the cosmic microwave background radiation, Stephen Hawking and
Roger Penrose and other scientists were able to show or develop some
very powerful theorems. And these theorems showed that if general

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