The first American in space on May 05, 1961

The first American in space: From Cape Canaveral, Florida, Navy Commander Alan Bartlett Shepard Jr. is launched into space aboard the Freedom 7 space capsule, becoming the first American astronaut to travel into space. The suborbital flight, which lasted 15 minutes and reached a height of 116 miles into the atmosphere, was a major triumph for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

NASA was established in 1958 to keep U.S. space efforts abreast of recent Soviet achievements, such as the launching of the world’s first artificial satellite–Sputnik 1–in 1957. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the two superpowers raced to become the first country to put a man in space and return him to Earth. On April 12, 1961, the Soviet space program won the race when cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was launched into space, put in orbit around the planet, and safely returned to Earth. One month later, Shepard’s suborbital flight restored faith in the U.S. space program.

NASA continued to trail the Soviets closely until the late 1960s and the successes of the Apollo lunar program. In July 1969, the Americans took a giant leap forward with Apollo 11, a three-stage spacecraft that took U.S. astronauts to the surface of the moon and returned them to Earth. On February 5, 1971, Alan Shepard, the first American in space, became the fifth astronaut to walk on the moon as part of the Apollo 14 lunar landing mission.

History Channel / Wikipedia / Encyclopedia Britannica / NASA / Space.com / Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.si.edu / The first American in space on May 05, 1961 (YouTube)

Cy Young throws perfect game on May 05, 1904

Cy Young throws perfect game: Cinco de Mayo, or the fifth of May, is a holiday that celebrates the date of the Mexican army’s 1862 victory over France at the Battle of Puebla during the Franco-Mexican War. Cinco de Mayo 2018 occurs on Saturday, May 5. A relatively minor holiday in Mexico, in the United States Cinco de Mayo has evolved into a commemoration of Mexican culture and heritage, particularly in areas with large Mexican-American populations.

On May 5, 1904, Boston Red Sox pitcher Cy Young throws a perfect game against the Detroit Tigers, who had fellow future Hall of Fame pitcher Rube Waddell on the mound. This was the first perfect game of the modern era; the last had been thrown by John Montgomery Ward in 1880. It was the second of three no-hitters that Young would throw, and the only perfect game.

Denton True Young was born March 29, 1867, in Gilmore, Ohio. Young began playing baseball professionally in Canton, Ohio, in 1890, making just $60 a month. He won his final Tri-State League game for Canton, striking out 18 men, before being acquired in August by the Cleveland Spiders, who paid $250 for his contract and gave him a raise to $200 per month. His teammates in Cleveland began calling him “Cyrus” to poke fun at his “country” ways; they eventually shortened it to “Cy”. In his first big league game, Young held Cap Anson’s Chicago White Stockings to three hits. His performance prompted the normally conservative Anson to make an offer for Cy’s contract on the spot; he was roundly refused. As Young continued to assert his dominance on the mound, the nickname Cy came to be short for “Cyclone”.

Cy Young was among the 111 players lured away from the National League when the American League was founded in 1901. Young dominated the AL in its first year, winning the pitching Triple Crown with 33 wins, 158 strikeouts and a 1.62 ERA. In 1903, Young led the Boston Americans (called the Red Sox by their fans before an official name change) to the American League pennant and then to victory in the first World Series. Young won two games and lost one in the series, with 17 strikeouts and a 1.59 ERA. For his career, though, Young was not a huge strikeout pitcher, preferring to use the seven players behind him, as many of the most successful pitchers do.

In his 906th and final game, Young lost 1-0 to a rookie named Grover Cleveland Alexander. Alexander went on to win 373 games in his career, but Young felt that if a rookie could beat him, it was time to retire. It was the 906th game Young pitched, the most games played by any pitcher to that time.

Cy Young is the all-time leader in wins with 511 and in losses with 316. In his 22 seasons in the major leagues, he threw 749 complete games, 110 more complete games than his closest competitor.

History Channel / Wikipedia / SABR.org / MLB / Cy Young throws perfect game on May 05, 1904 (YouTube)

Cinco de Mayo on May 05, 1862

Cinco de Mayoy Cinco de Mayo, or the fifth of May, is a holiday that celebrates the date of the Mexican army’s 1862 victory over France at the Battle of Puebla during the Franco-Mexican War. Cinco de Mayo 2018 occurs on Saturday, May 5. A relatively minor holiday in Mexico, in the United States Cinco de Mayo has evolved into a commemoration of Mexican culture and heritage, particularly in areas with large Mexican-American populations.

Cinco de Mayo History

In 1861, Benito Juárez—a lawyer and member of the indigenous Zapotec tribe - was elected president of Mexico. At the time, the country was in financial ruin after years of internal strife, and the new president was forced to default on debt payments to European governments.

In response, France, Britain and Spain sent naval forces to Veracruz, Mexico, demanding repayment. Britain and Spain negotiated with Mexico and withdrew their forces.

France, however, ruled by Napoleon III, decided to use the opportunity to carve an empire out of Mexican territory. Late in 1861, a well-armed French fleet stormed Veracruz, landing a large force of troops and driving President Juárez and his government into retreat.

The Battle of Puebla

Certain that success would come swiftly, 6,000 French troops under General Charles Latrille de Lorencez set out to attack Puebla de Los Angeles, a small town in east-central Mexico. From his new headquarters in the north, Juárez rounded up a ragtag force of 2,000 loyal men—many of them either indigenous Mexicans or of mixed ancestry—and sent them to Puebla.

The vastly outnumbered and poorly supplied Mexicans, led by Texas-born General Ignacio Zaragoza, fortified the town and prepared for the French assault. On May 5, 1862, Lorencez gathered his army - supported by heavy artillery - before the city of Puebla and led an assault.

The battle lasted from daybreak to early evening, and when the French finally retreated they had lost nearly 500 soldiers. Fewer than 100 Mexicans had been killed in the clash.

Confusion with Mexican Independence Day

Many people outside Mexico mistakenly believe that Cinco de Mayo is a celebration of Mexican independence, which was declared more than 50 years before the Battle of Puebla.

Independence Day in Mexico (Día de la Independencia) is commemorated on September 16, the anniversary of the revolutionary priest Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla’s famous “Grito de Dolores” (“Cry of Dolores”), a call to arms that amounted to a declaration of war against the Spanish colonial government in 1810.

History Channel / Wikipedia / Encyclopedia Britannica / Cinco de Mayo on May 05, 1862 (YouTube)

Understanding Military Terminology - Multinational integrated logistic unit

(DOD) An organization resulting when two or more nations agree to provide logistics assets to a multinational logistic force under the operational control of a multinational commander for the logistic support of a multinational force. Also called MILU; See also logistic support; multinational.

Joint Publications (JP 4-08) Multinational Operations - Joint Chiefs of Staff

The Old Salt’s Corner

“Bury Me With Sailors”

“I've played a lot of roles in life;

I've met a lot of men.

I've done some things I'd like to think

I wouldn't do again.

And though I'm young, I'm old enough

to know some day I'll die,

and to think about what lies beyond,

Beside whom I would lie.

Perhaps it doesn't matter much;

Still if I had my choice,

I'd want a grave,mongst sailors when

At last death quells my voice.

I'm sick of the hypocrisy

of lectures of the wise.

I'll take the man, with all the flaws,

Who goes through scared, and dies.

The troops I knew were commonplace

They didn't want the war;

They fought because their Fathers and

Theirs Fathers had before.

They Cursed and killed and wept...

God Knows

They're easy to deride...

But bury me with men like these;

They faced the guns and died.

Its funny when you think of it,

The way we got along.

We'd come from different worlds

To live in one were no one belongs.

I didn't even like them all;

I'm sure they'd all agree.

Yet I would give my life for them,

I know some did for me.

So bury me with Sailors, please,

Though much maligned they be.

Yes bury me with Sailors, for I miss their company.

We'll not soon see their likes again;

We've had our fill of war.

But bury me with men like them

Till someone else does more.”

~ Author Unknown

“I’m Just Sayin”

“If you want to be successful,

it’s just this simple.

Know what you are doing.

Love what you are doing.

And believe in what you are doing.”

“Don’t let yesterday take up too much of today.”

~ Will Rogers

“Thought for the Day”

“Fate leads the willing,

and drags along the reluctant.”

“Be wary of the man who urges an action

in which he himself incurs no risk.”

“Nothing is so wretched or foolish

as to anticipate misfortunes.

What madness is it

to be expecting evil before it comes.”

~ Lucius Annaeus Seneca

(1 BC - 65 AD)

“What I Learned”

“You can do something big

or you can something small./p>

Because what ever you do

it’s better than nothing at all.”

“Never stop learning,

because life never stops teaching.”

“Before you heal someone,

make sure to ask,

are you willing to give up

the things that made you sick.”

~ Anonymous

Second Hand News (Links to Articles from Week 17 - April 29, 2019 - May 05, 2019)

Attorney General William Barr blows off House Judiciary hearing in fight over format of questioning • Graham puts FISA court investigation in Roberts' lap • Three Republicans join House Democrats to rebuke Trump on Paris climate agreement • Barr says DOJ investigating whether Steele dossier was part of Russian disinformation campaign • Mark Meadows sends criminal referral targeting Nellie Ohr to DOJ

• Father of CIA officer slain after 9/11 calls for Trump to block release of 'American Taliban' • Trump pick Stephen Moore lays out his vision for the Fed • 'Bureaucratic crap': Congress blasts Pentagon over veteran medical record failures • Sri Lanka bomber trained in Syria with ISIS • U.S. natural gas exports to Europe surge nearly 300%

Editor's Picks: ICE to start administering 90-minute DNA tests on immigrant • Democratic presidential contenders hiding their positions • Pentagon identifies U.S. soldier who died in Syria

No Collusion: 10 anonymously sourced Trump-Russia bombshells that look like busts

Commentary - Washington Secrets - Red Alert: New York Times ran a devastating piece on Biden's self-dealing in Ukraine. So why is the headline about Trump? • Got your six: Honoring the men and women who have our back • In 9 seconds, one Briton perfectly sums up why Trump deserves a state visit • Notre Dame, synagogue shooting, church arson: Save sacred places before it’s too late • Democrat attacks on Barr come down to three-week gap • Mueller, Trump, and “two years of bullshit” • Democratic Party cybersecurity: A reminder that these people shouldn't be within 100 miles of our healthcare Washington Examiner

'He is not the AG in the way that he's conducted himself': Hillary brands William Barr 'Trump's defense lawyer' and calls for him to resign as he REFUSES to testify about Mueller to Democratic-controlled House Judiciary Committee • AG William Barr REFUSES to testify about Mueller to Democratic-controlled House Judiciary Committee on Thursday - and now could be held in contempt of Congress • Former FBI Director James Comey ripped into William Barr as the attorney general testified before Congress. 'Mr. Trump eats your soul in small bites'

'Trump is a f***ing idiot!' Lindsey Graham shocks Senate committee by reading vulgar text between Mueller probe's FBI lovers as he opens Bill Barr's hearing with vow to get to bottom of how collusion probe began • William Barr calls Mueller's letter criticizing how he summarized Russia report to Congress 'a bit snitty' as he clashes with Democrats over how he cleared Trump and handled investigation's big reveal

More than HALF of Democrats are less likely to back a presidential candidate who's over 70 despite aging Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders crushing the field to face Trump • Biden says in Iowa there is a 'class war' because middle income workers are being 'silent' as he takes on Amazon and hits back at Trump

Shocking video shows migrants using a rope ladder to scale the Mexico border fence as Trump asks Congress for $4.5BILLION emergency security funding • Trump administration to start DNA testing immigrants at the border to verify family relationships and rule out child trafficking • Trump and Melania host National Day Of Prayer dinner at the White House, where President pays tribute victims of California synagogue shooting, Sri Lanka Easter bombings and New Zealand mosque massacres

James Holzhauer notches his 20th straight victory on Jeopardy!, bringing his total winnings to $1.5million • REVEALED: Chinese national Yusi 'Molly' Zhao attended Stanford after her billionaire father paid $6.5 MILLION in college admission scandal • First parents to plead guilty in college admissions scam • REVEALED: The 101 highest paid CEOs at America's biggest firms Daily Mail UK

Tales of the New Cold War: What Mueller didn't investigate in the Russiagate Collusion fiction. 2 of 2.

In Japan, the emperor's throne passes from father to son: & What does it mean for America and the world? 2 of 2.

Trump teases Pelosi with $2T never to be spent for infrastructure.

House chairs Nadler, Schiff and Cummings continue to pursue Obstruction of Justice charges against Trump 2 of 2. John Batchelor (05/01/2019)

CORRUPTION CHRONICLES: JUDICIAL WATCH SUES JUSTICE DEPARTMENT FOR COMMUNICATIONS BETWEEN KEY ANTI-TRUMP COLLUSION OFFICIALS PETER STRZOK AND BRUCE OHR • Judicial Watch: Bruce Ohr Email Raises Possible Ethics Concerns Tied to Russia Testimony • Judicial Watch Sues FBI for Records of Meeting Set up By Andrew Weissmann with AP Reporters about Manafort Investigation • Time to Investigate the Investigators!

Deep State Coup: Covering-Up for Hillary Clinton & Targeting Donald Trump • Thousands of Illegal Aliens from Terrorist Nations Live in U.S. after Being “Deported” • Gender Identity Law Declares War on Women, Forces Trans Men to be Accepted as Female • Ohio Asks Feds to Designate Mexican Cartels as Foreign Terrorist Organizations After Sinaloa Bust • Corruption Fuels Border Crisis, Global Economic Woes Judicial Watch

Mr. Answer Man Please Tell Us: Will the Sun Ever Stop Shining?

Yes, the sun will eventually burn out. But In about five billion years.

Stars are born, they live, and they die. The sun is no different, and when it goes, the Earth goes with it. But our planet won't go quietly into the night.

Rather, when the sun expands into a red giant during the throes of death, it will vaporize the Earth.

Perhaps not the story you were hoping for, but there's no need to start buying star-death insurance yet. The time scale is long — 7 billion or 8 billion years from now, at least. Humans have been around only about 40-thousandth that amount of time; if the age of the Earth were compressed into a 24-hour day, humans would occupy only the last second, at most. If contemplating stellar lifetimes does nothing else, it should underscore the existential insignificance of our lives. [What If Earth Were Twice as Big?]

So what happens when the sun goes out? The answer has to do with how the sun shines. Stars begin their lives as big agglomerations of gas, mostly hydrogen with a dash of helium and other elements. Gas has mass, so if you put a lot of it in one place, it collapses in on itself under its own weight. That creates pressure on the interior of the proto-star, which heats up the gas until it gets so hot that the electrons get stripped off the atoms and the gas becomes charged, or ionized (a state called a plasma). The hydrogen atoms, each containing a single proton, fuse with other hydrogen atoms to become helium, which has two protons and two neutrons. The fusion releases energy in the form of light and heat, which creates outward pressure, and stops the gas from collapsing any further. A star is born.

There's enough hydrogen to keep this process going for billions of years. But eventually, almost all of the hydrogen in the sun's core will have fused into helium. At that point, the sun won't be able to generate as much energy, and will start to collapse under its own weight. That weight can't generate enough pressure to fuse the helium as it did with the hydrogen at the beginning of the star's life. But what hydrogen is left on the core's surface wil fuse, generating a little additional energy and allowing the sun to keep shining.

That helium core, though, will start to collapse in on itself. When it does, it releases energy, though not through fusion. Instead it just heats up because of increased pressure (compressing any gas increases its temperature). That release of energy results in more light and heat, making the sun even brighter. On a darker note, however, the energy also causes the sun to bloat into a red giant. Red giants are red because their surface temperatures are lower than stars like the sun. Even so, they are much bigger than their hotter counterparts.

A 2008 study by astronomers Klaus-Peter Schröder and Robert Connon Smith estimated that the sun will get so large that its outermost surface layers will reach about 108 million miles (about 170 million kilometers) out, absorbing the planets Mercury, Venus and Earth. The whole process of turning into a red giant will take about 5 million years, a relative blip in the sun's lifetime. [50 Interesting Facts About Earth]

On the bright side, the sun's luminosity is increasing by a factor of about 10 percent every billion years. The habitable zone, where liquid water can exist on a planet's surface, right now is between about 0.95 and 1.37 times the radius of the Earth's orbit (otherwise known as astronomical units, or AU). That zone will continue to move outward. By the time the sun gets ready to become a red giant, Mars will have been inside the zone for quite some time. Meanwhile, Earth will be baking and turning into a steam bath of a planet, with its oceans evaporating and breaking down into hydrogen and oxygen.

As the water gets broken down, the hydrogen will escape to space and the oxygen will react with surface rocks. Nitrogen and carbon dioxide will probably become the major components of the atmosphere — rather like Venus is today, though it's far from clear whether the Earth's atmosphere will ever get so thick. Some of that answer depends on how much volcanism is still going on and how fast plate tectonics winds down. Our descendants will, one hopes, have opted to go to Mars by then - or even farther out in the solar system. [What If Every Volcano on Earth Erupted at Once?]

But even Mars won't last as a habitable planet. Once the sun becomes a giant, the habitable zone will move out to between 49 and 70 astronomical units. Neptune in its current orbit would probably become too hot for life; the place to live would be Pluto and the other dwarf planets, comets and ice-rich asteroids in the Kuiper Belt.

One effect Schröder and Smith note is that stars like the sun lose mass over time, primarily via the solar wind. Planets' orbits around the sun will slowly expand. It won't happen fast enough to save the Earth, but if Neptune edges far enough out it could become a home for humans, with some terraforming.

Eventually, though, the hydrogen in the sun's outer core will get depleted, and the sun will start to collapse once again, triggering another cycle of fusion. For about 2 billion years the sun will fuse helium into carbon and some oxygen, but there's less energy in those reactions. Once the last bits of helium turn into heavier elements, there's no more radiant energy to keep the sun puffed up against it's own weight. The core will shrink into a white dwarf. The distended sun's outer layers are only weakly bound to the core because they are so far away from it, so when the core collapses it will leave the outer layers of its atmosphere behind. The result is a planetary nebula.

Since white dwarfs are heated by compression rather than fusion, initially they are quite hot - surface temperatures can reach 50,000 degrees Fahrenheit (nearly 28,000 degrees Celsius) - and they illuminate the slowly expanding gas in the nebula. So any alien astronomers billions of years in the future might see something like the Ring Nebula in Lyra where the sun once shone.

Live Science • Harvard.edu • NASA.gov • Quora • Wikipedia

NAVSPEAK aka U.S. Navy Slang

Coner: (pronounced “Cone-er”) (Submarine Service): A submarine crewman who is not part of the engineering department (see “Nuke”), especially a Torpedoman, because such crewmen are stationed in the forward cone of the Sub and are pretty much prohibited from wandering into the rear engineering spaces. Also known as “Forward Pukes” (as opposed to “Fuckin' Nukes”) or “M.U.F.F.s” (“My Up Forward Friends”).

Constant Bearing Decreasing Range (CBDR): A term used to indicate that an object or ship viewed on radar, or visually from the deck or bridge of one's own ship is getting closer but maintaining the same relative bearing. Without a change of course, this will ultimately end in a collision. CBDR is also used as a warning to shipmates heading into trouble or danger (not necessarily physical collision) they might not see or be aware of.

Constipation: Derogatory name for USS CONSTELLATION (CV-64).

Corpsman Candy: Sore-throat lozenges handed out at sick bay in lieu of any substantive treatment. Sometimes accompanied by two aspirin.

Cover: Term for any sort of headgear worn with a uniform in USN, USMC and USCG.

Countersunk Sailor: A female sailor.

Cow: A refrigerated fixture in the galley that dispenses something like milk.

CPO: Chief Petty Officer. Often refers to all chiefs, E-7 through E-9.

CPO Spread:

1. (Submarine Service) The world's most useless and uncomfortable rack sheet. Once thought to be solely for the elite khaki club, it is in fact a very cleverly disguised spy tool for a chief or officer to see if sailors have been sleeping (by checking for “Rack Burn”).

2. Weight gain apparent in senior enlisted men and women who have taken desk jobs.

Crank:

1. Penis.

2. (Also called a “Mess crank”; see also “Mess cranking”): A mess deck worker,E-3 or below, assigned to mess deck duties. Generally each division must supply a sailor on a rotating basis. May also refer to a new transferee assigned to the mess decks while qualifying for a regular watch. The term has always been discouraged, despite its frequent use.

3. Main propeller (screw) shaft, “whatever turns your crank”. (Whatever makes you happy.)

Just for you MARINE

Corpsman: Navy hospital corpsman attached to a Marine unit; also known as “doc”; inappropriate to address as “medic” or “aid man”. See also boxsee.

Cover: Headgear (a hat); also any protection from enemy fire.

Cover and Alignment: When in a formation, this refers to the proper distance between those next to, in front of, and behind a person; to seek the proper interval.

Naval Aviation Squadron Nicknames

Fleet Logistics Support Squadron 30 (VRC-30 Det 4) - nicknamed the “Pure Horsepower”

United States Navy - Naval Air Station North Island, San Diego, California / Coronado, California - Established March 26, 1952.

Where Did That Saying Come From?

“Two wrongs don't make a right:”  Meaning: When a person attempts to justify an action against another person because the other person did take or would take the same action against him or her.

Logical Forms:

Person 1 did X to person 2.

Therefore, person 2 is justified to do X to person 1.

Person 1 believes that person 2 would do X to person 1.

Therefore, person 1 is justified to do X to person 2.

Example #1:

Jimmy stole Tommy’s lunch in the past.

Therefore, it is acceptable for Tommy to steal Jimmy’s lunch today.

Explanation: It was wrong for Jimmy to steal Tommy’s lunch, but it is not good reasoning to claim that Tommy stealing Jimmy’s lunch would make the situation right. What we are left with, are two kids who steal, with no better understanding of why they shouldn’t steal.

Example #2:

It looks like the waiter forgot to charge us for the expensive bottle of champagne. Let’s just leave - after all, if he overcharged us, I doubt he would chase us down to give us our money back that we overpaid.

Explanation: Here the reasoning is a bit more fallacious because we are making an assumption of what the waiter might do. Even if that were true, two ripoffs don’t make the situation right.

Exception: There can be much debate on what exactly is “justified retribution” or “justified preventative measures”.

Logically Fallacious

Science & Technology

Look to your aunts, uncles and parents for clues to your longevity • Gene-editing tool CRISPR repurposed to develop better antibiotics • Emergency/urgent hospitalizations linked to accelerated cognitive decline in older adults • Elon Musk shows off prototype of Mars-bound rocket, Starship • Steam-propelled spacecraft prototype can theoretically explore celestial objects “forever” • The 17 different ways your face conveys happiness

Phys.org / MedicalXpress / TechXplore

Bizarre News (we couldn’t make up stuff this good – real news story)

A Mirror Image of Our Universe May Have Existed Before the Big Bang

Like a mountain looming over a calm lake, it seems the universe may once have had a perfect mirror image. That's the conclusion a team of Canadian scientists reached after extrapolating the laws of the universe both before and after the Big Bang.

Physicists have a pretty good idea of the structure of the universe just a couple of seconds after the Big Bang, moving forward to today. In many ways, fundamental physics then worked as it does today. But experts have argued for decades about what happened in that first moment - when the tiny, infinitely dense speck of matter first expanded outward - often presuming that basic physics were somehow altered.

Researchers Latham Boyle, Kieran Finn and Neil Turok at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo, Ontario, have turned this idea on its head by assuming the universe has always been fundamentally symmetrical and simple, then mathematically extrapolating into that first moment after the Big Bang. [Big Bang to Civilization: 10 Amazing Origin Events]

That led them to propose a previous universe that was a mirror image of our current one, except with everything reversed. Time went backward and particles were antiparticles. It's not the first time physicists have envisioned another universe before the Big Bang, but those were always seen as separate universes much like our own.

“Instead of saying there was a different universe before the bang”, Turok told, “we're saying that the universe before the bang is actually, in some sense, an image of the universe after the bang.”

“It's like our universe today were reflected through the Big Bang. The period before the universe was really the reflection through the bang”, Boyle said.

Imagine cracking an egg in this anti-universe. First, it would be made entirely of negatively charged antiprotons and positively charged anti-electrons. Secondly, from our perspective in time, it would seem to go from a puddle of yolk to a cracked egg to an uncracked egg to inside the chicken. Similarly, the universe would go from exploding outward to a Big Bang singularity and then exploding into our universe.

But seen another way, both universes were created at the Big Bang and exploded simultaneously backward and forward in time. This dichotomy allows for some creative explanations to problems that have stumped physicists for years. For one, it would make the first second of the universe fairly simple, removing the necessity for the bizarre multiverses and dimensions experts have used for three decades to explain some of the stickier aspects of quantum physics and the Standard Model, which describes the zoo of subatomic particles that make up our universe.

“Theorists invented grand unified theories, which had hundreds of new particles, which have never been observed - supersymmetry, string theory with extra dimensions, multiverse theories. People just basically kept on going inventing stuff. No observational evidence has emerged for any of it”, Turok said.[5 Elusive Particles Beyond the Higgs | Quantum Physics]

Similarly, this theory would offer a much simpler explanation for dark matter, Boyle said.

“Suddenly, when you take this symmetric, extended view of space/time”, Boyle told Live Science, “one of the particles that we already think exists - one of the so-called right-handed neutrinos - becomes a very neat dark-matter candidate. And you don't need to invoke other, more speculative particles.” (Boyle is referring to a theoretical sterile neutrino, which would pass through ordinary matter without interacting with it at all.)

The scientists say this new theory grew out of a dissatisfaction with the bizarre add-ons proposed by physicists in recent years. Turok himself helped develop such explanations but felt a deep desire for a simpler explanation of the universe and the Big Bang. They also say this new theory has the benefit of being testable. Which will be crucial in winning over doubters.

“If someone can find a simpler version of the history of the universe than the existing one, then that's a step forward. It doesn't mean it's right, but it means it's worth looking at”, said Sean Carroll, a cosmologist at the California Institute of Technology who was cited in the paper but was not involved in the research.

He pointed out that the current favorite candidate for dark matter - weakly interacting massive particles, or WIMPs - haven't been found and it might be time to consider other options, including possibly the right-handed neutrinos Boyle mentioned. But, he said, he's a long way from being persuaded and calls the paper “speculative”.

The Canadian team understands this and they will be using the model to propose measurable, testable elements to see if they are correct, they said. For instance, their model predicts the lightest neutrinos should actually be devoid of mass altogether. If they are right, it might reshape how we see the universe.

“It's very dramatic. It completely runs counter to the way that physics has been going for the last 30 years, including by us”, Turok said. “We really asked ourselves, could there not be something simpler going on?”

Live Science (01/11/2019)