Two science stories to tickle your big-thought imagination:
- Physicists have gathered substantial evidence that 99% of the mass of protons and neutrons - which make up almost all of the mass of ordinary matter - comes not from the quarks that make up the nucleons, but from the "virtual" gluon particles the carry the strong nuclear force. According to quantum theory, these virtual particles pop into existence and quickly disappear again, sort of borrowing against the the uncertainty principle.
- A theory called loop quantum cosmology (LQC) brings back an old idea of n "oscillating" universe, one that cycles through an endless series of expansions and contractions.