Scientists on the hunt for parallel universes

[Gahars]

Spoiler

The very concept of dark matter is one that has a lot of scientists scratching their heads. It is at the center of quite a lot of hypotheses and could provide a key insight into the very nature of the universe itself (how it began, how it functions, etc.).

There's just one nagging problem: We're having a hard time finding the stuff.

Well, a bunch of scientists have put forth a possible explanation that will be familiar to any fan of science fiction: a parallel universe. But is such a thing even possible?

...a new paper by a team of theoretical physicists hypothesizes the existence of mirror particles as a possible candidate for dark matter. An anomaly observed in the behavior of ordinary particles that appear to oscillate in and out of existence could be from a “hypothetical parallel world consisting of mirror particles,” says a press release from Springer. “Each neutron would have the ability to transition into its invisible mirror twin, and back, oscillating from one world to the other.”

Theoretical physicists Zurab Berezhiani and Fabrizio Nesti from the University of l’Aquila, Italy, reanalyzed the experimental data obtained by the research group of Anatoly Serebrov at the Institut Laue-Langevin, France, which showed that the loss rate of very slow free neutrons appeared to depend on the direction and strength of the magnetic field applied.

This type of field could be created by mirror particles floating around in the galaxy as dark matter, according to the new paper. Hypothetically, the Earth could capture the mirror matter via very weak interactions between ordinary particles and those from parallel worlds.

Universe Today

This is still a hypothesis, so a lot of testing and peer review is needed before we can get anywhere close to calling this a fact. Still, it's a tantalizing possibility, and it could radically alter our fundamental understanding of existence itself.

If this does turn out to be true, though, we might want to be careful about any attempts at making contact with our parallel selves. Who knows what kind of facial hair they'll be rocking?

 

[shakirmoledina]

hmm unlikely that they will find one leave alone go to it.
maybe there's a parallel world or system but unlikely that there is a parallel universe.

 

[Fear Zoa]

As interesting as stuff like this is, the more I think about it the more the possibility's overwhelm me and make my head hurt.
I can't help but wonder what the absolute boundary on human comprehension is and whether this comes close to it.

 

[Nobunaga]

Steins; Gate all over again?

 

[spinal_cord]

I think for the bilions of people alive today and for the next few hundred years, this will make no change to our understanding of anything at all.
Personally I don't care how much dark matter is or isn't in or meant to be in the universe. It will never effect anything I do or have done.

 

[pokefloote]

If humans ignored everything that wouldn't directly affect themselves then we wouldn't have made any progress as a species at all.

edit: species? I don't know. It's easy to understand my point.

 

[KingVamp]

I'm not sure that I even believe in this dark matter stuff. I do believe in anti-matter tho.

 

[nando]

if parallel universes are real then there has got to be scientist on the other universes trying to find them, why not just leave it up to them to find us so our scientist can focus on something more useful.

 

[pokefloote]

if parallel universes are real then there has got to be scientist on the other universes trying to find them, why not just leave it up to them to find us so our scientist can focus on something more useful.

And if they are thinking the same thing?

 

[nando]

if parallel universes are real then there has got to be scientist on the other universes trying to find them, why not just leave it up to them to find us so our scientist can focus on something more useful.

And if they are thinking the same thing?

there has got to be deviation, so eventually there will be a universe that is not thinking the same thing.

 

[ShinyLatios]

This is quite the interesting research. now find cures to diseases please. damn scientists :/

 

[Gahars]

hmm unlikely that they will find one leave alone go to it.
maybe there's a parallel world or system but unlikely that there is a parallel universe.

How would it be more likely that there's a parallel Earth/system/etc. and absolutely nothing else?

 

[Glyptofane]

I postulate that dark matter is a nonsensical and unproven theory to propagate the big bang theory, which is just religion disguised as science. The evidence is forming that there is a universe on the reverse side of every black hole. It's all spheroids. Mark it.

 

[Issac]

This is quite the interesting research. now find cures to diseases please. damn scientists :/

There's differences between scientists and scientists. These guys are theoretical physicists, not biological or neurological (or medical or... whatever) physicists... These guys will probably never cure diseases.

 

[gamefan5]

I'm not sure that I even believe in this dark matter stuff. I do believe in anti-matter tho.

That's because anti-matter actually exists.
As for dark matter, it's still in the hypothesis stage. However, if it was proven to be true, I can't imagine how interesting this would be.

 

[Janthran]

So there actually is a mirror world?
Younger me would be impressed.

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

I facepalmed at like half of the reactions to this piece of news. "WHY CAN'T THEY WORK ON MORE IMPORTANT THINGS LIKE HERP AND DERP!" Err...cuz they're theoretical physicists? I guess people still think scientists are just people who know a lot of things about everything

As for the news, I think it'd be pretty interesting to find a parallel universe but I doubt we'll find a way to interact with it.

 

[ShadowSoldier]

inb4 community evil abed refere... ah screw it.

I would love it if they were able to figure... WAIT!!!

Nobody made an Evil Abed reference? Shit.

 

[Deleted_171835]

inb4 community evil abed refere... ah screw it.

I would love it if they were able to figure... WAIT!!!

Nobody made an Evil Abed reference? Shit.

Haha, I was going to but then I realized that there were multiple alternate universes, not just one parallel one.

 

[Gahars]

Getting mad at theoretical physicists for not curing diseases is like getting mad at an Italian restaurant for not making sushi.

The science behind diseases and physics are very different and very important. To go all in for one at the expense of the other would be a mistake.