TRY to imagine living in a collapsing universe. Galaxies would hurtle towards each other before colliding, ending up in an unimaginably hot and dense crunch, like the big bang in reverse. Yet the chances of intelligent life evolving in this hostile place are higher than you might expect, says one physicist. The concept might also help scientists understand why our universe is so hospitable.
Whether a universe expands forever or collapses in a big crunch depends on the strength of the dark energy it contains, a number called lambda. A weak positive value for lambda is causing our universe’s expansion…
