Is our universe the only one???
Answers
As physicists have delved deeper and deeper into nature’s mysteries, they have been forced to accept the unsettling fact that our universe is suspiciously fine-tuned to support life. The amount of matter in the universe, the mass of the electron, the strength of gravity – if the value of any of these deviated only a tiny bit from what they actually are, then galaxies and stars could not form and biological life could not exist. The best theory that physicists have come up with to explain this cosmic coincidence is called the String Theory Landscape.
The String Theory Landscape combines elements from two of the strangest and most enduring ideas in modern physics – string theory and cosmic inflation – to argue that we live in a multiverse made up of infinitely many “pocket universes,” of which our perfectly calibrated universe is just one. This five-part series tells the story of how theoretical physicists at Stanford helped develop the String Theory Landscape – and in the process sparked a fierce and still ongoing debate about what science is and what it should be.
Answer:
There are still some scientists who would say, hogwash. The only meaningful answer to the question of how many universes there are is one, only one universe. And a few philosophers and mystics might argue that even our own universe is an illusion.