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A spring compressed to the limit breaks. Likewise, classical gravity theory leads to a singularity — a point where all laws break down. Quantum mechanics turns this end into an elastic bounce. Wheeler and DeWitt described the universe as a wave of probabilities. A new model applies this to space closed like a ball. Energy, like a built-in spring, makes it contract and expand.

Physicists discovered two scenarios. The first resembles the usual flow of time — expansion after contraction, as in some approaches. But at high energies, the spring 'jams': calculations require corrections.

The second scenario is elegant: the Big Bang becomes a Big Bounce, and time reverses. Past and future swap places. The bounce works on its own, without crutches.

The quantum world smooths out spacetime curvature in the infant universe. The idea can be tested via the cosmic microwave background — perhaps it hides ring-like patterns of gravitational waves.