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Transcript
October 31, 2003
NARRATOR: The idea of parallel universes has long been a
staple of science fiction. But some of the physicists who believe in
string theory think it could be science fact. As shown on PBS's
NOVA, string theory proposes that everything in the universe is made
up of unimaginably tiny vibrating strings. Because these strings
need to move in more than the three dimensions we experience, some
scientists think that up to 11 dimensions might exist.
AMANDA PEET (University of Toronto): We've always
thought . . . that there's only three dimensions of space and one of
time. And people who've said that there were extra dimensions of
space have been labeled as, you know, crackpots. Well, string theory
really predicts it.
NARRATOR: Some physicists believe these strings can stretch
into something called a membrane, or "brane" for short. A brane
could be as large as an entire universe, and our whole universe
could exist on a brane inside a much larger space. In other words,
our universe might be a mere slice of bread in a much larger "loaf,"
and that loaf might contain other slices, or parallel universes,
right next to ours, that we can't see or touch. But because string
theory suggests that gravity is leaking into the different
dimensions, we might someday be able to detect the presence of these
other universes by studying gravity.
SAVAS DIMOPOULOS (Stanford University): If there
happens to be intelligent life on one of the membranes, then this
intelligent life might be very close to us. So theoretically, and
purely theoretically, we might be able to communicate with this
intelligent life, by exchanging strong gravity wave sources.
NARRATOR: Blurring the worlds of science fiction and science
fact. I'm Brad Kloza.
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