Soviet Work Suggests Mixmaster Singularity at Origin

If Einstein's general relativity is right, one can say that the universe started from a singularity, possibly infinite density. So say Isaac M. Khalatnikov and Evgeny M. Lifshitz (Phys. Rev. Lett. 24, 76, 1970), who recently showed that one can construct a general solution of the Einstein equations with a “Mixmaster” singularity; the result suggests that the beginning and end of the universe or the final state of a collapsing star has a singularity near which the object of interest contracts (or expands) while at the same time it is alternately squeezed into the shape of a pancake, then a cigar, then a pancake and so on.