Recipe for a Universe

Searching for a metaphor…

Woodward: The universe. I have to write up the universe by tonight.

Bernstein: Hmm, big subject. What’s in it besides you and me?

Woodward: Dark energy, dark matter, particles like neutrinos and atoms. Need a metaphor.

Bernstein: Quite a mix. Write it like a recipe. The particles are ingredients, apply a big bang to stir it up, it becomes a soup of dark energy, dark matter and neutrinos. Mix in atomic particles to become stars and planets to taste.

_________

Voice-over

Would that astrophysics be as easy as cooking. Though some scientists might wish that cooking were as simple as astrophysics.

For CERN’s recipe go here 

“Take a massive explosion to create plenty of stardust and a raging heat. Simmer for an eternity in a background of cosmic microwaves. Let the ingredients congeal and leave to cool and serve cold with cultures of tiny organisms 13.7 billion years later.”
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