The universe is governed by the laws of nature. Some that can be quantified and many that cannot. The precise nature of existence coupled with the random outcomes is intriguing to say the least. And as new theories come up in theoretical physics the understanding of the universe is becoming even more obscured. One of these rogue theories is called the string theory.
Traditional knowledge of the universe directed us to think that the fabric of the universe is rigid hence it cannot be modified r changes in terms of shape. Einstein looked at the universe in a completely different way. For him the universe could be stretched and its shape can be distorted. The theory of wormholes came into existence. If the universe is say in the shape of a paper then what if we fold it at the centre, now we have two points of the same paper coming in contact with each other. Hence instead of going from point A to point B on the sheet we can just fold the paper and make the points come in contact with each other without having the trouble of drawing a line. These channels of contacts are known as wormholes. Time is imagined to be a flowing entity so there is always a progressive link in between two points. If we apply the wormhole theory in this context then we can simply skip through points directly. Now does that say time travel might be possible? Who knows if we have a wormhole we can simply tap into the flow of time and transport ourselves anywhere at any time we want.
But as always there is a slight glitch in this theory. First of all for wormholes to form there has to be a tear in the fabric of the universe. Which is not possible according to Einstein himself, the only tears we see in the fabric of the universe are “black holes”. Try flying into one of them and survive. So for some time this theory was put in hibernation. But not for long, another theory came flying into theoretical physics which not only made worm holes, time travel possible but also the existence of parallel universes and extra dimensions.
We know that everything around us is made up of atoms which are themselves made up of electrons circling around proton and neutrons that are themselves made up of quarks. Lets break it down further and say that they can be further divided into vibrating strings of energy, hence the string theory.
The theory came into the spotlight in 1984 and sent theoretical physicists into a tizzy. The thing about strings is that even if they are closed looped string or open looped strings the movement of strings is unique due to its vibrating nature. Imagine a guitar the strings are of different thickness and when disturbed from their mean positions vibrate differently creating a symphony, chaotic separately but melodic when combined. So string theory compelled us to look at the dimensions in a different way. Dimensions are basically the degree of freedom which in turn means how many ways can an object move. We walk on a straight line say X axis then turn perpendicularly and keep walking say y axis and then we jump that is the Z axis, all this combined with the amount of time taken can give certain coordinates that determine our position in different planes. I already named 4 dimensions there are 6 more plus one more accordingly to string theory which leaves us with 11 dimensions.
Now for science that makes science look like science fiction. Physicists went overboard with string theory hence after some time there were 5 versions of the same theory, this is not possible because the theory of everything can only be explained by one theory only. Enter Edward Witten, the successor of Einstein and one of the greatest minds of our time. In 1995 Ed successfully rocked the pants of every physicist in the world by unifying the 5 string theories by saying that we are looking at the same thing but from different vantage points. So now the universe seems to be more complicated than ever before.
Our universe seems to be inside a loaf of bread. Our universe is a thin membrane like one of the slices of this loaf of bread. Thus there are other slices that exist next to us, like a row of books on a shelf. These slices of bread next to us are parallel universes in other dimensions. They are as close as a millimetre away from you; you cannot see them because they are at different points in the flow of time. Also these membranes are isolated so you cannot reach out and touch the entities in the other membranes. So the room you are sitting in right now can be still in existence when it was made 20 years ago housing previous tenants or you yourself moving about around you but you cannot see them due to the separation between membranes, dimensions and time. Reminds you of seeing ghosts doesn’t it. I can go on about this but I am almost upto a 1000 words so giving it a rest and also I guess now this article might be starting to get kinda weird. Think of this article as one of the first in a series where science looks like science fiction giving more questions than answers, big bang, black holes, time travel, even the question ARE WE REAL?
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