![Opinion: The issue with the Huge Bang idea Opinion: The issue with the Huge Bang idea](https://clpnewsblog.com/wp-content/uploads/https://cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/140604150129-hubble-color-galaxies-super-tease.jpg)
Subsequent astronomers invented variations of inflation, of varying degrees of complexity, but they all predict that the early universe expanded at unfathomable speeds.
The principle of inflation has long been considered an important component of the modern scientific theory of how the universe began, but it has never been experimentally confirmed — so it remains a speculative idea.
There are those who are discomfited when a scientific measurement draws into question a theory that is popular among researchers, but they shouldn’t be. The self-correcting nature of science is actually its strongest asset.
Scientists are constantly double-checking their own ideas and, even if they don’t, other scientists do it for them. The goal is to get at the truth. Indeed, a good scientist should never hold firmly to their ideas and should be open to changing their viewpoint as more data comes in. Slowly, but surely, scientific ideas are refined by this process, getting closer and closer to the truth.
In many ways, this recent BICEP-3 result is like the situation with Covid in early 2020. Initially, scientists told us that we needed to disinfect all of our groceries and that masks weren’t that important. However, as more research was performed, scientists found that their initial advice was incorrect. Over the last year and a half or so, doctors learned and modified their approach to the disease.
Similarly, improved measurements like those made by BICEP-3 might one day confirm inflation theory, but equally well those future measurements could one day kill it.
But that’s OK. Scientists will put on their thinking caps and come up with a newer and better theory, and we’ll be closer to the truth. Change is inevitable.