We’ve tended to post items about biology on this site, because of our opposition to children being taught that Creationism or Intelligent Design explain the origin of life, rather than evolution, but there are some fascinating things going on in physics too. Maybe the physicists don’t attract as much attention, particularly from religious people why deny science, because their work is so mind-boggling that few people understand it. There are two stories that have caught my attention over the last week. The first is the idea that our universe is just one of many; that there is a “multiverse”, as a group of cosmologists, astrophysicists, particle physicists and philosophers speculate in a Cambridge University Press publication:

Recent developments in cosmology and particle physics, such as the string landscape picture, have led to the remarkable realization that our universe – rather than being unique – could be just one of many universes. The multiverse proposal helps to explain the origin of the universe and some of its observational features.

Universe or Multiverse? Edited by Bernard Carr, CUP

The second is the work going on in Europe’s gigantic particle accelerator:

If you were to dig a hole 300 feet straight down from the center of the charming French village of Crozet, you’d pop into a setting that calls to mind the subterranean lair of one of those James Bond villains. A garishly lit tunnel ten feet in diameter curves away into the distance, interrupted every few miles by lofty chambers crammed with heavy steel structures, cables, pipes, wires, magnets, tubes, shafts, catwalks, and enigmatic gizmos.

The God Particle – National Geographic Magazine.

With such fascinating developments in science, it’s scandalous that the UK does badly in international league tables for science education.

Tags: Science, Physics, Universe, Multiverse, Schools