In a recent series of papers, we have shown that theories with scalar fields coupled to gravity (e.g., the standard model) can be lifted to a Weyl-invariant equivalent theory in which it is possible to unambiguously trace the classical cosmological evolution through the transition from big crunch to big bang. The key was identifying a sufficient number of finite, Weyl-invariant conserved quanti...

We study a symmetry, schematically Energy → – Energy, which suppresses matter contributions to the cosmological constant. The requisite negative energy fluctuations are identified with a “ghost” copy of the Standard Model. Gravity explicitly, but weakly, violates the symmetry, and naturalness requires General Relativity to break down at short distances with testable consequences. If this breakd...

We present a brief review of Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN). We discuss theoretical and observational uncertainties in deuterium and helium-4 primordial abundances and their implications for the determination of important cosmological parameters. We present, moreover, some recent results on active-sterile neutrino oscillations in the early universe and on their effects on BBN.

We study the effect from a general ultralocal supermetric on primordial nucleosynthesis for Friedmann-Robertson-Walker Cosmology. The parameter λ of the supermetric changes the effective number of degrees of freedom, g∗, which modifies the Friedmann equation. This modification produces variations in the production of primordial 4He. The observations of the primordial abundances of light element...

Children Are Good Observers Children learn from actively investigating the world around them. Coming upon a construction site, for instance, a fouryear-old will be curious about the activity. The adult with the child should take the time to stop, really look at what’s going on, and direct the child’s attention to the details. “Let’s watch and see what happens while that dump truck unloads dirt....

A main inhibitor to electronically extending supply chains is that large organizations and the majority of their smaller business partners have incompatible business systems. Big businesses’ sophisticated IT infrastructures support many kinds of information integration, manipulation, and reporting, whereas many small to medium businesses (SMBs) use IT only for simple clerical tasks. Big busines...

Like Computer-Based Training, Web-Based Training (WBT) has embraced multimedia based content as a musthave. The market offers a variety of WBT authoring (hence, MSE) tools. Within their defined scope, these tools offer a high degree of sophistication. The following article discusses the state of the art for such tools. While little may be blamed if one accepts this defined scope, the article pu...