Was our universe born in a wormhole in another universe?

(excuse me Sir, my brain is full!)

A long time ago in a universe far, far away a giant star is in its death throws. It has shone undiminished for billions of years, faithfully illuminating its corner of the cosmos but, its fuel finally exhausted, it collapses. Its quiet implosion concentrates all of its formerly colossal bulk into a tiny speck, a black hole that bends the fabric of the universe to such a degree that it tunnels into another reality and the star becomes a wormhole. Within the wormhole’s womb, a seed of matter expands to become a whole new universe in which, one day, you will be born, live out your days and die.

This might sound pretty fantastic but a theoretical physicist believes that just such a scenario could answer some of cosmology’s most annoying problems.

One of those problems is gravity. For decades scientists – including Einstein – have struggled to mathematically unite this force with the other fundamental forces (electromagnetism and the strong and weak nuclear forces).

Another problem is the messy reality that our universe is expanding at an ever increasing rate when, theoretically, its expansion should be slowing. The last is more of a question than a problem – what came before the Big Bang?