Cyclic Universe

I just thought it was cool to hear a new theory that could support the Big Bang theory with the help of string theory - and it's actually testable.

The gist of what I understand is that the universe blows up, the energy dissipates and mass goes to nothing. Then two branes (which apparently is supported with String Theory - which is a little over my head right now) crunch together and "blam" - the universe is reborn.

So, the universe could be older than what we originally thought!

The cool thing that is that this idea sort of helps to explain a problem the Big Bang theory has -the rate in which the universe is expanding is far slower than what the models are showing. This new cyclic universe idea posits that after each Big Bang, the energy degrades - and they've been able to model it.

Now all they need to do is to test it.

Yes, I'm a nerd.