http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid...7/10/09/1544200

heh, i just keep getting surprised by those physicists

To paraphrase a Shadowland poster in YotC, all the words were in english, I checked, but I don't know what they were saying. Could someone with more science knowledge translate?

So, ummm, how far away is this event?

The paper is not peer reviewed. That means that someone went off on a rant and declined to allow people in the astro-physics field to go over it and pick holes in the methodology. Generally that is the case under one of two circumstances:

1. The Announcement is about something profitable, and they want to maintain secrecy until it is brought to market.
2. If we beat the shit out of the people making the announcement there would be nothing left.

I'm guessing number two.

-Frank

Like Frank said, I wouldn't get too excited. Reading the summary, it roughly translates to:

"We've seen a lot of funky drek going on. Some of this funky drek looks like the sort of drek we say you'd see if the universe were about to turn really, really weird. You know, as a head's up."

If they're wrong (which they almost certainly are), this is nothing to worry about. And I'm betting they're wrong. If they're right, it probably means the end of the world as we know it, with no possible way for us to avoid it given our current technology. So bet they're wrong.

Zhan,

I'll try to translate, If I understood the blurbs correctly.

This starts with the assumption that there are more dimentions in existance than the 4 that our universe uses. In essence, our universe primarily uses 4 of the X dimentions available (scientists tend to say 9-12 dimentions are available for string theory). Because the universe doesn't use all the dimentions, it's called a brane. Kind of like a 2d square of a univers in a 3d world.

anyway, according to their paper, the 4th dimention of time as a part of space time, may be switching from time to another dimention of space. so it wouldn't just be up, down, left, right, forward, back, there'd be two more directions to go in that previously didn't exist before.

So if a 4th dimentional world occured, hypercubes and other impossible solids become possible. Other than that, I have no idea what would actually occur.

Oh, and I'll concur with frank, it's probably number 2 on his list of options. Not sturdy enough scientifically to hold up to being reviewed.

One thing I would like to point out is that a lot of the assumptions this article is generating is that a fourth dimension of space would replace time. However, were that to happen we would not be able to advance, and thus not interact in any meaningful way with the four dimensions that were there, I posit that there is always time in all worlds brane or not, otherwise there would be no meaningful interaction much less quantifiable observation and as a result this "flip" would switch us from a four dimensional world to a five dimensional world. Would be really freaky if it happened in a little over 4 years wouldn't it?

Chris

EDIT: I write this with the assumption the theory is true, which I actually find incredibly unlikely. Would be cool though, wouldn't it?

Thanks, Lagomorph. This sounds like the sphere of Correspondance from White Wolf's old Mage game.

I vote we dub them "Thisaway" and "Thataway"! Who's with me?