Originally posted by cajun
what created the "big boom" (I mean I know 2 somethings are suppose to have collided, but what created them?)
Nothing "created" the Big (bang) "boom." There was no collision. The Big Bang Theory states that a sphere of almost infinate mass and infinate density expanded to create the universe. The evidence in support of this theory is in the movement of the stars. There is a measurable "center" of the universe from which all things move away. This is supposedly where the expansion occured. (yes, its much more detailed than that, but its late)
The more iteresting issue is the equivilent of "Who created God?" In other words - why did a small ball of "stuff" come together and explode? There are two possibilities which hindge on which "end theory" you subscribe to.
End Theory 1: The Big Crunch. All of the matter in the universe moves away from a central point and from eachother. As the distance from the center is increased, so is the speed of travel until a certain point. Eventually, gravity will stop the expansion of the universe and begin to reverse its effect. The result would slowly but surely pull the matter together - back into its sphere form. Nearer to the end matter would accelerate to asounding velocities and all converge back into this ball... an unmeasureable amount of time later (trillianths and trillianths of a second), the sphere would reach its critical density and explode all over again, resulting in a second, third, fourth, etc Big Bang. In theory, this process has gone on for quite some time (gross understatement) and will continue indefinately as a means of "renewing" the universe.
End Theory 2: The Big Freeze (or Chill). This theory states that all of the above regarding the Big Bang applies, but instead of the force of gravity being enough to halt and reverse the expansion of the universe, it proves too weak and the expansion not only continues, but speeds up continuously. Eventually (matter) stars become so far apart from eachother (because remember, just as stars are moving away from a central point, they are also moving away from eachother - the farther the star is from the explosion, the faster it is currently moving AND accelerating) that you would not be able to see one star while stationed on a planet orbiting another star - the night sky would be completely black. Eventually the distances would be so great the the "reproduction" of stars would prove extremely difficult and the universe would "freeze." In practice, the Big Freeze Theory maintains that the initial expansion of he universe was a one shot deal and this is pretty much it - it aint happening again.
Recent discoveries (last 10 or so years) point to the Big Freeze as the more likely option because the expansion of the universe simply ISNT slowing down. Either way, we're all gonna be dead - youve got a 50/50 chance between being incenerated and compacted or frozen and stretched.
In terms of tying this into evolution - just as different humans have different charectaristics - height, eye type, skin pigment, teeth, etc etc etc, the humans that result from one of these two end theories will be VASTLY different that we are. We'll use just the eyes for our example.
If the Big Crunch holds true - human's will EVOLVE to combat the changing environment. As the stars condense - light becomes more powerful - soon the night sky as dark is a distant memory. Just as Asains have thicker eyelides to protect them from snow glare in the Northern climates (read: Inuit, etc) Humans in this environment - where stars LITERALLY cover the entire sky - will need to shield their eyes somehow. If the brightness is so overbearing (and it will be) we will not be able to USE our eyes. As a result - the eyes would fall victim to evolution and would eventually be erased as viable sensory organs. We would have to abandon sight as our primary means of navigating life.
If the Big Freeze holds true, and stars continuously get further apart, our eyes will do just the opposite of above. Since light will be diminished, we will EVEOLVE to counter this change in our enviroment. Our eyes will become much more sensitive to light - perhaps bigger to capture more light - and withl different mechanics. Once light is totally snuffed out however, everything changes once again. Without ANY light to magnify, the eyes would fall victim to disuse just as they did in the previous theory and we would need to rely on another sensory perception to navigate the world.
Thankfully, while our eyes first attempt to cope with each change through better protection (eyelids) or increased light gathering ability (size) and then successively fall into disuse (burned out or unable to capture light that isnt there) other sensory organs will be picking up the slack at the same time.
