A colorful, graphically rich chart that illustrates and summarizes what is now known about the history and fate of the universe has been developed by scientists at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) in collaboration with the Contemporary Physics Education Project (CPEP). More than 11,000 copies of this chart are being distributed this month through The Physics Teacher magazine to high school science teachers across the nation for field-testing with their students. The History and Fate of the Universe chart was first proposed about three years ago by Berkeley Lab physicists George Smoot and Michael Barnett.
“The hardest part in doing a chart like this is deciding what to include and what to exclude; the more we included the more we had to cut out,” says Smoot, who is best-known for his pivotal role in the discovery of radiation ripples in the infant universe that grew into the galaxies of stars we see today. “With field-testing, we’ll have a better idea of what works and what doesn’t work on the chart,” says Barnett who has played key roles in the development of three other charts which serve as guides to discoveries in particle physics, nuclear physics, and fusion energy and have been highly popular with teachers and students alike.
The History and Fate of the Universe chart can be viewed on the Internet. This website will be providing supplemental material including a glossary of terms, and an article written to accompany the chart’s publication by Lawrence M. Krauss, the award-winning Ambrose Swasey Professor of Physics and Professor of Astronomy at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio. Krauss is the author of the national best-seller The Physics of Star Trek and several other well-received books on astrophysics and cosmology.
Teachers (or others) wishing to receive a copy of the chart should visit CPEP’s Fieldtest Webpage.