The_illusionist, It seems that that theory is telling us one thing for sure, the universe will be cold enough and dark, but that doesn't mean the universe will not exist. We are talking about the existence of the universe here (not whether it will be cold or dark). Something being dark doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Let say, the universe will accelerate faster and scatter all over the place (but where? where it will go?) About the big bang, where was that mass (the ball) that explode before it actually exploded. We always talk about relativity, what was the relative location of that mass? I think the problem with our assumption is that we always think that the universe is round and has 4-5 dimension and is expanding, may be our assumption is wrong? May be the stars in the galaxies are moving further (not the universe). The string theory says that the string has 11 dimension (the smallest particle that require a particle accelerator as big as the milkyway galaxy to view it), and we assume that the biggest thing is 4 dimensional (its funny). To me it seems that the universe will always be a mystery to human. Everyday we explore more, it grows more. Nature is the ultimate winner.