{"id":235950,"date":"2026-04-26T10:05:20","date_gmt":"2026-04-26T15:05:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/04\/surprise-there-was-a-universe-before-the-big-bang-ethan-siegel"},"modified":"2026-04-26T10:05:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T15:05:20","slug":"surprise-there-was-a-universe-before-the-big-bang-ethan-siegel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/04\/surprise-there-was-a-universe-before-the-big-bang-ethan-siegel","title":{"rendered":"Surprise: There was a universe before the Big Bang | Ethan Siegel"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<p><iframe style=\"display: block; margin: 0 auto; width: 100%; aspect-ratio: 4\/3; object-fit: contain;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/o6g8W6BaF_I?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope;\n   picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>\u201cAsking the question of, where did the entire universe come from, is no longer a question for poets and theologians and philosophers. This is a question for scientists, and we have some amazing scientific answers to this question that have defied even the wildest of our expectations.\u201d Subscribe to Big Think on YouTube \u25ba <img alt=\"\" class=\"\"> \/ <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/bigthink\">@bigthink<\/a> Up next, The mind-blowing circle of life, explained by a biologist \u25ba <img alt=\"\" class=\"\"> \u2022 The mind-blowing circle of life, explained\u2026 Ethan Siegel, theoretical astrophysicist and science communicator, author of the James Webb Space Telescope book, \u201cInfinite Cosmos,\u201d and writer of the science blog, \u201cStarts With A Bang\u201d joins us to explore the cosmic origins of our universe. Read Ethan\u2019s companion article: <a href=\"https:\/\/bigthink.com\/starts-with-a-ba\">https:\/\/bigthink.com\/starts-with-a-ba<\/a>\u2026 \u2014 Where did the entire universe come from? 0:57 \u2014 A question for scientists 1:43 \u2014 The quest for the beginning of the universe 2:21 \u2014 Hubble\u2019s telescope 4:09 \u2014 Extragalactic objects 5:11 \u2014 Blueshifted vs redshifted 6:53 \u2014 General theory of relativity 7:50 \u2014 The cosmic egg 8:26 \u2014 The origin of The Big Bang 9:55 \u2014 A cosmological constant 14:24 \u2014 Scale invariant spectrum 15:13 \u2014 Testing for Cosmic Inflation 19:34 \u2014 Our cosmic origins 21:03 \u2014 Ethan Siegel, kilt influencer Read the video transcript \u25ba <a href=\"https:\/\/bigthink.com\/series\/the-big-t\">https:\/\/bigthink.com\/series\/the-big-t<\/a>\u2026<\/p>\n<p>Go Deeper with Big Think: \u25baBecome a Big Think Member Get exclusive access to full interviews, early access to new releases, Big Think merch and more. <a href=\"https:\/\/members.bigthink.com\/?utm_sou\">https:\/\/members.bigthink.com\/?utm_sou<\/a>\u2026 \u25baGet Big Think+ for Business Guide, inspire and accelerate leaders at all levels of your company with the biggest minds in business. <a href=\"https:\/\/bigthink.com\/plus\/great-leade\">https:\/\/bigthink.com\/plus\/great-leade<\/a>\u2026<\/p>\n<p>About Ethan Siegel: Ethan Siegel is a Ph.D. astrophysicist and author of \u201cStarts with a Bang!\u201d He is a science communicator, who professes physics and astronomy at various colleges. He has won numerous awards for science writing since 2008 for his blog, including the award for best science blog by the Institute of Physics. His three books \u201cTreknology: The Science of Star Trek from Tricorders to Warp Drive,\u201d \u201cBeyond the Galaxy: How humanity looked beyond our Milky Way and discovered the entire Universe,\u201d and \u201cInfinite Cosmos: Visions From the James Webb Space Telescope\u201d are available for purchase at Amazon. Follow him on X <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/startswithabang\">@startswithabang<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cAsking the question of, where did the entire universe come from, is no longer a question for poets and theologians and philosophers. This is a question for scientists, and we have some amazing scientific answers to this question that have defied even the wildest of our expectations.\u201d Subscribe to Big Think on YouTube \u25ba \/ [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":661,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1527,1617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-235950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alien-life","category-quantum-physics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/661"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235950"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235950\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}