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“The origin of the universe is one of the most difficult realities we ponder,” writes Marcelo Gleiser, a professor of physics and astronomy, in a post on NPR’s 13.7 blog. “It bends our logic, straining the words we have to describe it. If one is to say the universe started at the Big Bang some 13.8 billion years ago, the immediate reaction is: “But what came before that? What caused the Big Bang?”

Despite many attempts by philosophers and physicists, Gleiser concludes, we still have yet to find satisfying answers to these questions.