November 1, 1994

Turning to Einstein New findings on the universe's age have thrown cosmologists a curve. So some are reconsidering an idea that Einstein once called his biggest blunder. Science Times, page C1. A Deluge of Catalogues Mail-order retailers, trying to beat a 10 percent increase in their postal rates next year, say the 1994 holiday season is breaking all records of mailbox clutter. Page D1. Haiti's Capital Bustles Again In Port-au-Prince, people no longer fear they will be kidnapped and killed by the gunmen the army used as enforcers, and restaurants, bars and music clubs are full. Page A16. Gunmen Kill Boy, 15s Two men wearing Halloween masks pistol-whipped a Queens nanny and then fatally shot a 15-year-old boy in her charge as he rushed to help her, the police said. Page B3.

EVEN though the universe has infinite ways of humbling them, cosmologists are nothing if not resilient and endlessly creative. They have to be, given their daunting task of standing on the shore of a small world and looking beyond the harbor lights of nearby stars to the arching waves of clustered galaxies, seeking on far horizons glimpses of the entire cosmic history, from beginning to probable end. For more than three decades, their most satisfying reconstructions of that history have rested squarely on the "Big Bang" theory. In the beginning, according to this model, mass was compressed into a state of infinite density, an initial singularity. Then there was a kind of explosion. Everything -- space itself -- expanded, thinned out and cooled. At first, all was smooth and virtually uniform. But around some faint wrinkles, called density fluctuations, matter began clumping into stars, galaxies of stars and clusters of gravitationally bound galaxies stretching across the sky.

FORGET the great human heart and brain, the eyes that see sweeping vistas, the lips that declare "I am"; the real thing standing between us and primordial ooze is the human skeleton. Built of 206 bones, 29 in the skull alone, the skeleton is a living cathedral of ivory vaults, ribs and buttresses -- a structure at once light and strong, flexible and firm. Yet like those toy kits requiring self-assembly, the skeleton is also so complicated that many things can and do go wrong with it during development. Disorders that affect the growth of the body's bones are among the most common of all birth defects. For example, at least one in 3,000 babies suffers from any of 100 different syndromes that cause the sutures of the skull plates to fuse prematurely.

Convicted sex offenders in New Jersey will now be subject to lifetime supervision under a package of laws signed today by Gov. Christine Todd Whitman. Critics, particularly civil libertarians, say that the bills, among the nation's toughest, contain more symbolism than substance and are heading for a certain constitutional challenge. Even as she signed the nine-bill package, known as Megan's Law, Mrs. Whitman acknowledged that keeping a tight rein on sex offenders after they have completed their sentences presents legal problems. But she added: "It would be hollow justice if we wrote laws to protect families and communities only to have those laws struck down in the courts. I am confident this package will pass constitutional muster."

After five years of denials, Con Edison admitted in court yesterday that for four crucial days in 1989 it failed to tell Federal authorities that asbestos had been released into the air when a steam pipe exploded near Gramercy Park in Manhattan. The utility pleaded guilty to conspiracy and environmental-law violations in Federal District Court in Manhattan, abruptly ending a trial that began last month. A former Con Edison steam-operations executive, who retired in 1991 but was indicted with the company last year, also pleaded guilty to a similar charge.