CONFLICTING STORIES ABOUT THE UNIVERSE

For some cosmologists to admit the need to re-examine ideas upon which they have constructed their theories in the light of new information is indeed refreshing [Science, March 6]. Fortunately, these scientists appear to lack the disturbing habit, found so often in evolution-based sciences, of ignoring or explaining away empirical evidence that contradicts fervently held beliefs.

Kathleen Michael Mount Vernon, Washington

Your otherwise fine article on new theories about the universe reinforces the popular notion that scientists are muddling buffoons who grasp at the thinnest of straws to support their pet ideas. Science at the cutting edge is always controversial, and only with time are conflicting ideas resolved into what we call truth. We often forget that civilization is held together by a framework of scientific achievement, every piece of which was once controversial.

Arthur N. Palmer Oneonta, New York

Surely it is arrogant for us to think that beings as insignificant as ourselves will ever unravel the mystery of the universe. After all, why should a dog be able to understand why it barks? For all we know, the earth may be nothing more than a virus in the belly of some incomprehensible organism.

Stephen J. Gamblin Shutlanger, England

When did the universe start? Our confusion about this might stem from the arbitrary assumption that the cosmos was created by a single Big Bang at a single point in time. What we should ask is, When did the last Big Bang take place, and what did we inherit from the previous universe? There may never have been a beginning, only an endless series of Big Bangs and Big Crunches--an endless chain of past and future universes, born, collapsed and recreated, each inheriting something from the previous one, an eternal cosmic drama taking place in an N-dimensional space that our three-dimensional brain and senses will never fully comprehend.

Norbert E. Samek Sierra Madre, California

The more information we receive, the more we realize how much we still don't know. Astronomer Christopher Impey, commenting on a new theory of the age of the cosmos that would make it 2 billion years younger than some of the stars it contains, said, ``You can't be older than your ma.'' But if the Big Bang was the child and the galaxies in the cosmos the mother, then the age difference between the stars and the Big Bang makes sense. I believe that matter existed in the cosmos, or whatever, prior to the Big Bang. However it happened, I believe God had his hand in it, and so far things have turned out O.K.

Paul Buchko Bessemer, Michigan

Science is a self-correcting process that thrives by digesting new facts. If our model of the universe is a quilt that requires some reworking, fine. However, some wrongheaded groups will inevitably interpret the unraveling as support for a Bronze Age cosmology.

Chuck Bobich West Newton, Pennsylvania

If the universe began, what was before the beginning? If the matter composing the universe occupies space, what is beyond the space? The only reality is change, ever changing unlimited matter in the now. As for the purpose?

Oliver Andresen Chicago