Like “… jazz musicians collecting themes that sound good for a

work in progress”: Before the Big Bang, There Was . . . What? ‘…(L)ately, emboldened by progress in new theories that seek to unite Einstein’s

lordly realm with the unruly quantum rules that govern subatomic physics —

so-called quantum gravity — (cosmologists) have begun to edge

their speculations closer and closer to the ultimate moment and, in some cases,

beyond it.

Some theorists suggest that the Big Bang was not so much a birth as a transition,

a “quantum leap” from some formless era of imaginary time, or from nothing at

all. Still others are exploring models in which cosmic history begins with a collision

with a universe from another dimension.’ New York Times