Science by Marilyn: The Idea of Other Universes

[Samantha York]

The Idea of Other Universes

Almost everyone has seen some of the episodes in Star Trek that have to do with the so-called mirror universe. This universe was first explored in the original series "Mirror, mirror"; Deep Space Nine, "Crossover"; and Enterprise, "In a Mirror, Darkly". All have to do with a seemly dark parallel universe. The idea of parallel universes have all been used in science fiction for quite sometime. They all derive as from that phrase in the remake of "The Time Machine-2002", of writers being obsessed with that burning question of "Those two most terrible words. What if?".

All science fiction right? At one time, the question seemed to be quite clearly a no. However, the latest studies have made the question more of a perhaps to maybe not.
Just as the findings for exoplanets has come to the forefront, scientists studying the Cosmic Background Radiation or CMB, now have some interesting things to say about the data from the Plank observer.

The idea goes something like this: If after the Big Bang and constant inflation then our universe inside its cosmic bubble exists alongside other universes in their bubbles and they too could be expanding, then collisions could have taken place.

The map of the universe CMB shows odd anomalies that may have been caused by the gravitational pull of other universes. The CMB map from the Big Bang (~13.8 billion years ago) should be evenly distributed, but the map data instead shows stronger radiation in the southern half of the sky and even more mysterious a definite 'Cold Spot' that cannot be explained by our current understanding of physics.

Laura Mersini-Houghton, theoretical physicist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Richard Holman, professor at Carnegie Mellon University, predicted that anomalies in radiation existed and were caused by the pull from other universes.
So far their hypothesis, is the only one that explains the observed phenomenon.



Some of these universes may not even have some of the same physics either as was explored in the David Brin's "The Practice Effect" in which the Law of Thermodynamics no longer is the same as this universe.

So perhaps some of those writings exploring those, "Two Most Terrible Words. What If?" may not be so terrible after all. Who knows, and perhaps as we all explore in our latest episode of Galileo, maybe the Well of Souls is something not so metaphysical after all.