Ylem

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Ylem is a term which was used by George Gamow and his associates for a hypothetical original substance or condensed state of matter, which became subatomic particles and elements as we understand them today. It reportedly comes from an obsolete Middle English word that Gamow came across while thumbing through a dictionary, which means something along the lines of "primordial substance from which all matter is formed." Restated, the Ylem is what "thing" Gamow, et al, presumed to exist at least immediately before the instant of the Big Bang. The term has come into disfavor.

The Big Bang theory currently assumes that the universe in which we exist began from a "singularity" (a near-dimensionless point) that somehow came about and exploded, converting into the first subatomic particles and lighter elements (hydrogen and helium, possibly some lithium). "Time" as we know it, also began with the Big Bang.

In distinction from a singularity, the Ylem had finite size, with mass equal to the whole of the present universe. It is conceivable from what we now know (and George Gamow, et al, didn't), that the Ylem might have been a Bose-Einstein condensate. But "size" has meaning only relevant to some dimensional referent. Therefore, in absence of anything else existing, the Ylem can be considered to have been a singularity. Thus, Gamow's theory and current creation theory are reconciled.