  Our universe appears to have been created not out of nothing but from a
strange space-time dust. Quantum geometry (loop quantum gravity) makes it
possible to avoid the ominous beginning of our universe with its physically
unrealistic (i.e. infinite) curvature, extreme temperature, and energy density.
This could be the long sought after explanation of the big-bang and perhaps
even opens a window into a time before the big-bang: Space itself may have come
from an earlier collapsing universe that turned inside out or inverted and
began to expand again. - Key words: Loop quantum cosmology, Wheeler-DeWitt
equation, singularity, Abhay Ashtekar, Martin Bojowald.
