The cosmic energy released in the Big Bang that started the Universe 13 billion years ago has been mapped by satellites and can now be used by mathematicians to test “string theory,” the proposition that everything in the universe, from subatomic particles to entire galaxies, is made of tiny strings of energy.
The mathematics of string theory suggests that the world we know is not complete. In addition to our four familiar dimensions - three-dimensional space and time - string theory predicts the existence of six extra spatial dimensions, “hidden” dimensions curled in tiny geometric shapes at every single point in our universe.
Though currently the front-runner to explain the framework of the cosmos, the theory remains, to date, untested.
So scientists are starting to test the theory with the satellite map of cosmic energy, looking for clues to the 6 other dimensions (represented by the theoretical picture above). The European Space Agenc’s Planck satellite (launching 2008)will provide more detailed maps of cosmic energy and bring mathematicians closer to proving string theory and determing what geometric model was chosen at the moment of the big bang.
The implications of such a possibility are profound, says Henry Tye, a physicist at Cornell University. “If this shape can be measured, it would also tell us that string theory is correct.”
And if string theory is correct? Maybe warp speed, travel great distances in little time, unlimited energy sources. It took 100 years for the mathematical theory of algebra to be physically morphed into rudimentary computers (George Boole published his tome in 1849). But things have accelerated since. We may be on the brink of something truly revolutionary here.
From neatorama and Science Daily.
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