Hi Couldchaser; Actually, if all that is left of the universe is photons, the universe would still be neverending. As far as the big crunch and string theory, I like the idea but it's not mine. Here is a blub from our friends at Wikipedia:
Singularities are avoided because the observed consequences of " big crunches" never reach zero size. In fact, should the universe begin a "big crunch" sort of process, string theory dictates that the universe could never be smaller than the size of a string, at which point it would actually begin expanding.
My own theory if you are interested is located at: ( http://www.toequest.com/forum/your-t...2803-idea.html ) You'll have to access a PDF file. Best to you, Pat