Countdown to oblivion: Why time itself could end - physics-math - 28 September 2010 - New Scientist

Countdown to oblivion: Why time itself could end - physics-math - 28 September 2010 - New Scientist: "'We could run into the end of time,' Ben Freivogel tells a seminar at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. Several colleagues seem nonplussed, and one Nobel laureate looks downright exasperated. 'I'm aware that this sounds like a crazy conclusion,' Freivogel admits, generating a round of what sounds like relieved laughter. But perhaps their relief is short-lived.

The nature of time, our perception of it and even whether it exists at all are hot topics for both physicists and philosophers. But Freivogel isn't pushing a strange new concept of time.

His idea is arguably even more baffling. He thinks that time, as described by Einstein's theory of general relativity, could simply end in our universe, taking us with it. He gives us another 5 billion years or so before the axe falls (see 'Five billion years to go', below)."