Scientists find first evidence that many universes exist

[crownjules]

a good explanation of the underlying/background is in stephen hawking's "Into the Universe" episode called "The Story about Everything"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chakKbPNI3w

a very enjoyable watch but it's 9 parts. it opens with a computer drawing of our universe using supercomputers, talks about how it was formed, the concept of multiple universes, theories of how it will end, etc.

Very awesome series. If only more people would watch it and understand why the quest for knowledge and understanding of our surroundings is so amazing and important.

My biggest take-away: the universe as we know it exists in very big part because of imperfection.

 

[destrekor]

No, I don't think that's what it means.

Turtles all the way down?

:hmm:

 

[Tequila]

Time to set up the Fringe Division.

Wierd, I'm not sure what to make of this $20 that I found with MLK on it.

 

[TheVrolok]

Well, not really. Here's the easy answer as to why (and also the reason my wife doesn't let me have conversations at dinner parties):

If the multi verse model is correct, we may live in a "living" universe, which is allowed because our universe is slightly defective.

While it sounds like a joke, it could be true. See, our universe leaks gravity. We're not sure where it's all leaking into , but it is. Because there's a gravity leak, it's affect on matter is weaker than any of the other forces. How much weaker? Look at the incredible energy needed to rip an atom apart--the strong and weak interaction forces really stick all those subatomic particles together for keeps.

Gravity on the other hand? Try jumping up into the air. Easy, wasn't it? You just resisted the gravitational pull of the entire Earth with your legs. While gravity has the farthest reaching effects of any of the forces, it is the least powerful.

And that's a good thing...if it were as strong as the other forces, matter would never have formed, and we all would not be here. The universe would be a tiny blob of plasma floating around in the void. Most universes may actually be like this---or maybe one of the other forces is "leaking", which would prevent particles from making strong bonds. Our universe has the EXACT balance of forces needed to allow matter to form, and this is so unlikely that many consider it to be very rare.

Why gravity is so weak is something that the greatest minds in physics are trying to discover. It is the key to knowing why we are here and where we are going. We've made many advancements in this field in the last decade, and have included the discovery of dark matter and dark energy- with dark matter seeming to increase gravity's effect, and dark energy seeming to weaken it's effect. Gravity's weakness could be attributed to the stretching of space...perhaps due to dark energy, which in effect dilutes the force. Gravity may also be getting blown into another dimension, filling it like invisible tanks and causing spatial expansion. There's a lot of crazy theories out there, and they're all valid at this point...we just need the funding to make the tools to find the answers.

Great time to me a physicist right now

Any recommended papers/books to read on the subject? Very interesting! :thumbsup:

 

[Fritzo]

Any recommended papers/books to read on the subject? Very interesting! :thumbsup:

Besides reading Stephen Hawking's new book, check out the work of Erik Verlinde and John Gribbin. I like physicists that can speak in plain language that everyone can understand, and this group does it very well.

 

[Analog]

Besides reading Stephen Hawking's new book, check out the work of Erik Verlinde and John Gribbin. I like physicists that can speak in plain language that everyone can understand, and this group does it very well.

Susskind is pretty good IMO. He also has some podcast lectures downloadable free from iTunes.

 

[Sea Moose]

You mean there might be a universe where nothing but bacon exists?

I imagine a universe which is filled with katy perrys boobies :hmm:

 

[TheVrolok]

I imagine a universe which is filled with katy perrys boobies :hmm:

.. could they be covered in.. bacon?

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

Makes you wonder if we are just ants in some divine beings ant farm. Anytime you think you're starting to figure things out they just alter what you believe to be reality and now you start all over again.

 

[GagHalfrunt]

idea sounds crazy amazing.

if they can prove it, it'll be another blow to religion!

No it won't. We still have religion because of the wannabelievers amazing ability to simply invent new facets to their religion when science inconveniently disproves something they previously believed. We could find a universe filled with hyperintelligent giant cockroaches that have the power to bend space and freeze time at will and earth religions will just write new fairy tales to account for it.

"In the beginning God created the giant space cockroaches and they were good..."

 

[sjwaste]

What am I missing? They found some statistically unlikely patterns in the CMB. The part about bumping into other universes is pure conjecture.

 

[bfdd]

What am I missing? They found some statistically unlikely patterns in the CMB. The part about bumping into other universes is pure conjecture.

So was the CMB not all that long ago.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

So we hear that there's nothing outside our universe. If that's true, how did we bump into something?

 

[GagHalfrunt]

So we hear that there's nothing outside our universe. If that's true, how did we bump into something?

Women drivers.

 

[CurseTheSky]

Now imagine if these many other universes are merely "atoms" that form the building blocks of something even bigger...

/head asplode

 

[IHateMyJob2004]

At some point, why do we care. Really, how does knowing this improve our lives?

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

At some point, why do we care. Really, how does knowing this improve our lives?

Yeah, it could turn out like that stupid bread mold. What a bust that was.

 

[Matthiasa]

Umm... well... we could extract energy from the other universes.
Just don't pick the wrong one to do that to.

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

At some point, why do we care. Really, how does knowing this improve our lives?

Well we do know one of these days the sun will become unstable and scorch the earth when it enlarges to many times it's current size before it eventually dies. So at a minimum we will at least need to advance to the point where we can live on another planet. And eventually physicists believe that the world is going to end in a lifeless cold universe dominated by super massive black holes and no way we could live in that. So eventually we're gonna have to learn to travel to other dimensions or universes.
Continuing existence of the human race seems like a good enough reason.

 

[Modular]

idea sounds crazy amazing.

if they can prove it, it'll be another blow to religion!

I think you need to take step back and get off your anti-religion failboat.

What about this proves religion is wrong, and why do you feel the need to bring that up at all in this thread? Troll.

 

[bfdd]

Well we do know one of these days the sun will become unstable and scorch the earth when it enlarges to many times it's current size before it eventually dies. So at a minimum we will at least need to advance to the point where we can live on another planet. And eventually physicists believe that the world is going to end in a lifeless cold universe dominated by super massive black holes and no way we could live in that. So eventually we're gonna have to learn to travel to other dimensions or universes.
Continuing existence of the human race seems like a good enough reason.

Who knows we might one day be able to just create our own dimensions. We humans have been on a quest to become God since we thought up the concept.

 

[Greenman]

In the words of Robert A. Heinlein, "A scientist will believe seven impossible things before breakfast".

 

[HomeBrewerDude]

You mean there might be a universe where nothing but bacon exists?

and Bacon Lasers... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p85qd6FL9vA

 

[Kommander_Kink]

Now imagine if these many other universes are merely "atoms" that form the building blocks of something even bigger...

/head asplode

This was how the movie Men In Black ends, with aliens playing marbles and each
marble was a galaxy.

 

[SunnyD]

Isn't this essentially a repost (though a little more detailed) than your previous thread about this?