The cosmic inflation hypothesis is needed for the Big Bang model to work, but in its current form, it remains a mere hypothesis, unable to be falsified. A new proposal for how it could be put to the test could result in overthrowing the Big Bang model altogether, opening up new possibilities regarding the origins of the universe, argues Avi Loeb. Scientific theories often require tweaking to fit the data, but sometimes when those tweaks are big enough, they end up becoming theories of their own. The biggest tweak to the Big Bang model has been the introduction of the cosmic inflation hypothesis. According to this theory, the universe went through a phase of exponential expansion soon after its coming into existence. The only problem is, we can’t seem to test this theory. In the language of philosopher of science Karl Popper, cosmic inflation doesn’t appear to be falsifiable. That might be about to change. In a recent paper, Sunny Vagnozzi and I propose …
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