Imagine an infinite universe expanding in all directions. Visualization is impossible. Questions abound. But cosmologist Wendy Freedman is able to conceive of these heady abstractions in concrete, physical terms. Remarkably, she has also managed to measure the actual expansion of the universe, observing its rate and its acceleration since the early universe. Seen in her measurements is the pressure of dark energy driving the expansion ever faster. From afar, as a graduate student in the ’90s, I watched Wendy’s quiet tenacity and astounding composure as she presented her results, then controversial, to a pressurized storm of critique. Calmly, she described the observations and her conclusions as she found herself at the epicenter of one of modern cosmology’s most significant debates—that of the universe’s age. A consistent history of our universe began to emerge with a clarity that exposed other conundrums. Today, Wendy is again at the center of a tension thrumming at the nexus of our understanding of the early universe, its expansion, and the cosmos as we observe, all the while exhibiting her masterful calm.
Levin is an astrophysicist