Can science burst the bubble of the multiverse? Physicists aren't afraid to think a lot, but what happens when you think too much? This philosophical question intersects with real physics when hypotheses are put forward about what lies beyond the boundaries of our observable Universe. The problem with trying to apply science to something that may or may not exist outside of our physical world is that we don't know which science to test these hypotheses with? The leading hypothesis that has emerged from inflation theory and advanced theoretical research associated with superstring theories is the multiverse. In the most general sense, the multiverse is a collection of universes that come and go every now and then, forming a foamy mess in a vacuum of non-zero energy. In quantum fluctuations, universes are born and die - and each of them takes different forms and different kinds of physical laws. But if the multiverse hypothesis has even the slightest connection to reality, how can scientists prove (or even find some observable evidence) that we are in one universe from an infinite ocean? This issue is further complicated by the fact that many critics believe that the multiverse hypothesis is nothing more than metaphysics or a philosophical discussion. We are forever trapped inside our shared bubble, which means we will never be able to know what is “out there”, if there is anything there at all - so what is the point of thinking about it? At the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Ontario, Canada, theoretical physicists are working hard to combine multiverse theory with observational science collected from all corners of deep space. “We're trying to figure out what the testable predictions of the multiverse will be, and then we'll look for them,” Matthew Johnson, a spokesman for the project, told Discovery. If the multiverse is real, it stands to reason that in this frantic confusion of neighboring bubbles there will be frequent collisions, like the balls in a billiards table. Johnson's team is first looking for evidence of neighboring universes colliding with our own, which should provide proof of their existence. But to do this, Johnson needs a model of the entire universe. “We start with a multiverse that has two bubbles and we push them together on a computer to see what happens. Then we place virtual observers in different places and figure out what the observer should see,” Johnson says. “It’s quite easy to simulate the universe.” The team isn't simulating every atom, star, or galaxy in the universe; computer modeling affects only the largest large-scale structures and forces. “All I need is gravity and the material that these bubbles are made of.” According to scientists, their work is extremely important for understanding what is happening in regions outside our Universe. For example, if we imagine a universe full of collisions, Johnson's model says that observations of the cosmic microwave background radiation will reveal specific rings, or "bruises," in places where another universe collides with ours. The cosmic microwave background is the ubiquitous but very faint echo of the Big Bang, which we can see at the farthest distances in the Universe. If there are any interactions between the bubbles of universes (as some multiverse hypotheses suggest), these circular bruises should be present in the CMB signal - and represent distortions at the outermost boundaries of our bubble. But a quick analysis of the all-sky microwave microwave background radiation map does not reveal any rings, potentially disproving the theory of a multiverse filled with colliding bubbles of universes. Or at least the collisions are not happening yet - perhaps the multiverse is in some state of rest. This research is not intended to prove whether the multiverse exists, it simply identifies possible signals that might be worth paying attention to. And it connects serious science to metaphysics, as the theory of multiverses currently appears to be. If you've read the article this far please like and subsc yt3.ggpht.co