SHOCK WAVE UNIVERSE

(SFX: BOOM! EXPLOSION )

     IN EVERY HOLLYWOOD VERSION OF AN EXPLOSION, YOU'LL SEE PEOPLE DRAMATICALLY
THROWN THROUGH THE AIR AS A SHOCK WAVE TRAVELS BY AND KNOCKS THEM DOWN.  MOVIE
DIRECTORS DO OFTEN TAKE LIBERTIES WITH THE FACTS, BUT THIS ONE THEY HAVE DOWN RIGHT--THERE'S A FORCEFUL WAVE OF AIR THAT BURSTS OUT FROM EVERY EXPLOSION.  WHILE
HOLLYWOOD MAY HAVE THE CONCEPT DOWN, PHYSICISTS DIDN'T INCORPORATE SHOCK WAVES
INTO ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT THEORIES AROUND: THE BIG BANG.  THE BIG BANG THEORY
SAYS THAT THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE--NOT JUST OUR EARTH, OR OUR SOLAR SYSTEM, BUT ALL THE
GALAXIES--STARTED OUT SMOOSHED INTO A SINGLE POINT IN SPACE BILLIONS OF YEARS AGO. 
THIS POINT EXPLODED AND CREATED THE UNIVERSE.  IT SOUNDS KIND OF INCREDIBLE, BUT
SCIENTISTS ACCEPT IT, PARTLY BECAUSE IT FITS PERFECTLY WITH EQUATIONS ABOUT THE
UNIVERSE  PROPOSED BY EINSTEIN.  BUT THE BIG BANG THEORY HAS A PROBLEM, SAYS
MATHEMETICIAN BLAKE TEMPLE AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA IN DAVIS. 

     Temple: "Any explosion that we've ever seen generates a shockwave. . . so we started exploring this
idea and came up with a new exact solution of the einstein equations that has a shockwave in it." 

     TEMPLE AND HIS COLLEAGUE JOEL SMOLLER AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
INCORPORATED A SHOCK WAVE INTO EINSTEIN'S THEORIES AND STILL CAME UP WITH A SOLUTION
THAT EXPLAINS THE EXPANDING UNIVERSE WE SEE TODAY, WITH ONE BIG DIFFERENCE.

     Temple: "When you extrapolate this backwards you don't have to go to the absurdity that the entire
universe actually came from one spot." 

     IN TEMPLE AND SMOLLER'S THEORY, THE PATCH OF SPACE THAT WE'RE IN DID INDEED ALL
START OUT AT ONE POINT, BUT IT EXPLODED OUTWARD INTO A UNIVERSE THAT WAS ALREADY
THERE.  DON'T LOOK FOR THE BIG BANG THEORY TO BE DROPPED JUST YET, THOUGH.  MOST
SCIENTISTS STILL FIND THE NEW SHOCK WAVE THEORY RATHER SHOCKING.