Before the Big Bang

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I heard that scientists at CERN successfully tested the new Large Hadron Collider today. Assuming further testing is successful, the scientists will attempt to recreate the conditions that existed immediately after the Big Bang. According to this story, they hope to answer questions about the origin of the universe. (Scientists are pretty sure that any black holes they create will be too tiny to swallow up the Earth.)

Wow. Going back to that instant, that sharp crack when it all began! What a great achievement if they are successful. I wonder what it would be like to approach the Big Bang itself?

Looking at it another way, let us suppose we can reverse time and watch the universe begin to shrink; contracting faster and faster until finally everything – the entire universe – is in one place. Like salmon swimming back to where they were born, the stars crowd towards the center of the universe. As we follow along we begin to feel a beat like the pulse of the cosmos, and hear it counting backwards. Three, two, one, and now, as the countdown approaches zero, the entire universe is breathed into a single point in space. The singularity. The Big Bang. The film has been rewound right back to the very first frame. Are you there with me?

This is the place where we meet up with those scientists – a microsecond after the Big Bang. Now, let us suppose that we can go back just a bit further, to a microsecond before the Big Bang. Suppose we were allowed a peek at what caused the Big Bang, a look at what (or who) came before?

What would we find?