The void: Imprint of another universe?

New Scientist ^ | 11/24/07 | Marcus Chown

[muawiyah]

You'll have to talk to the folks the writer at New Scientist interviewed for the article.

That's their words.

You have purchased a copy haven't you? Lots of good stuff in there this week.

[444Flyer]

I don’t know that I should even be on this thread. My nerd score is only 47 does that qualify?

[Buddy B]

Our Undiscovered Universe - Null Physics

Physicists sometimes wonder if a new theory might emerge that makes quarks, the Big Bang, and superstrings completely obselete.

They don't need to wonder anymore.

[new cruelty]

I imagine such a creator’s ability to care would be as great and incomprehensible as his creation.

[Larry Lucido]

Whoever said, “Invest in real estate; they aren’t making any more land,” will have to re-think that.

[new cruelty]

problem is, try getting AAA to provide service out that far.

[KoRn]

ping

[steve86]

Can anyone explain why this would be defined as a separate universe, rather than both being part of one big universe? This seems to stretch the definition of the term.

One universe has uniform physical (and logic?) laws therein (admittedly simplistic statement). Physics doesn't use the term to mean everything that there is everywhere.

[HeartlandOfAmerica]

Several authors attempted to describe these situations.

Maybe they'll find "Lazarus" in this tunnel from that Star Trek episode where the guy gets trapped in this tunnel with his anti-self madman for the rest of eternity.

Cool episode.

[Psycho_Bunny]

Laura Mersini-Houghton and colleagues have claimed it is an “unmistakable imprint of another universe beyond the edge of our own.”

It is quite the leap.  If she truly believes this - without any evidence, at all - the void is analogous to the one in her head.

It's especially absurd given that she seems to view the void from the sole perspective of the Visible Universe - in which case, it's pretty big.

But no one has any idea how big the Total Universe is, it's just as possible that the void is completely insignificant - as the trough between two waves is to all the water on the earth: it might look big when you're in the water but, all in all, it ain't nothing.

 

[steve86]

After thinking about that logic part: yes, several theories include fundamentally different rules of causation in the external universes, so one has to say that logic changes as well.

[Grizzled Bear]

It is the “nothing”!

---

I’m not worried! I have my “Racing Snail!”

[Grizzled Bear]

Astronomers announced in August 2007 the discovery of a large hole at the edge of our universe.

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I’m just borrowing it for a little while. I’ll put it right back where I found it when I’m finished with it. I promise.

[Grizzled Bear]

This observation merely confirms the long-standing Dunkin Theorem that our universe is doughnut-shaped...and these guys finally found the hole.

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Darn. I was hoping it would be filled with a delicious creamy filling.

[R_Kangel]

Something came through.

[BigCinBigD]

All hail the Terran Empire!

[ModelBreaker]

"It is the unmistakable imprint of another universe beyond the edge of our own,"

Real scientists don't make statements like this about what is, at best, a theory that has some facts that may be consistent with it.

[SunkenCiv]

Boy, I hate those voids in the universe. Thanks KoRn.

[ModelBreaker]

The trouble with this kind of discovery is, it makes the universe so incomprehensible, so large and awe-some, that it makes me wonder how in the hell any creator could possibly care about any insignificant speck in it, such as our earth, much less a meaningless little gnat on that speck, such as me. I hope he has deputies all over the place whose job it is to care.

It's sort of His perogative, isn't it. I mean caring about a speck.

[Defiant]

If I had that car, I’d need AA service.