Word: cosmos
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...world splits into multiple universes. In each one, the electron has a different position--and all these many worlds, each equally real, go on to have their own futures. In this so-called many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics, the universe is incredibly prolific, since each particle in the cosmos produces a multitude of new universes in each instant--and in the next instant, every one of these new universes fragments again. Yet plenty of physicists consider this to be a perfectly valid idea. And if it's correct, the number of universes evolving in parallel is far greater than...
...wormhole, could in theory serve as a shortcut to a distant part of the universe (characters on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine use wormholes the way New Yorkers use subways). But according to an idea proposed in the 1980s by Stephen Hawking, it could also lead out of our cosmos altogether, creating a "baby universe" that would then expand and grow, forming its own self-contained branch of space-time...
...that's true, then trillions of these baby universes exist, for that's how many black holes are believed to inhabit our cosmos. And those are just the naturally occurring ones; baby universes could in principle be manufactured as well. M.I.T. physicist Alan Guth realized in the late '80s that you might create a baby universe in the lab from just a few pounds' worth of matter by compressing the stuff to black-hole density...
...probably even in the next billion years. Nevertheless, a sufficiently advanced civilization might be able to master the intricacies of creating baby universes--maybe even selling kits to do it in science fairs. Unfortunately, the new space-time such a universe inhabits will be forever cut off from our cosmos by the black-hole bottleneck (which destroys everything that passes through it), and thus will be just as undetectable as those in quantum theory's many-worlds interpretation...
...glass cube has its origins in one of the abiding fantasies of the architectural world: the unbuilt ball that French neoclassical visionary Etienne-Louis Boullee conceived in 1784 as a memorial to Sir Isaac Newton. Boullee knew a simple sphere would state with full authority the grandeur of the cosmos. Polshek knew...