I admit I merely referred to something a human wrote in a book; I was aware that it was possibly inaccurate. The book indicated that the state of the Universe less than a micro-second after the big bang, did involve plenty of photons.

And that photons were present before atoms. I think you'll find that author was right though. I was not referring to the cosmic background radiation; but the state before one second was up. I shall have to check Steve Weinberg's "The First Three Minutes" and see what he said.

Let's see: according to Weinberg: one-hundredth-of-a-second after the beginning we have an abundance of electrons, positrons, PHOTONS, neutrinos, antineutinos. Further, as the 100,000 million degrees Kelvin Universe temperature is far above the threshold temperature for electrons and positrons: Weinberg tells us that these particles are behaving just like so many different kinds of radiation.

So there you have it: according to Weinberg it effectively started with so many kinds of electromagnetic radiation. ( though many pi-mesons before this) "Let there be light" thus makes a good description of the Universe after a hundredth of a second. Guess the ice I was skating on wasn't so thin after all!

On another subject: it is said that light travels as a wave but arrives and departs as a particle. How about: liberty is woven into the very fabric of the Universe; light travels as 'options open for consideration' and arrives and departs as 'an agreement'?

Also: the superposition of choice, having several options open, is the nature of life; the superposition of evasion, of contradiction, is the scenario of death.

Existence, freedom, creation; mankind has the opportunity to re-join the cosmic game that perhaps so-called aliens from other galaxies may be playing as we speak?

• Very thin ice: how about false vacuum and Higgs field? - alexander - September 6, 2001 - 23:34 UTC