Hiding in the mirror : the mysterious allure of extra dimensions, from Plato to string theory and beyond

250 Pages·2005·1.39 MB·English

by  Krauss

HIDING IN THE MIRROR
A L S O B Y L A W R E N C E M . K R A U S S
Atom: A Single Oxygen Atom’s Journey from the Big Bang to Life on Earth . . .
and Beyond
Quintessence: The Mystery of the Missing Mass
Beyond Star Trek: From Alien Invasions to the End of Time The Physics of Star
Trek
Fear of Physics: A Guide for the Perplexed
The Fifth Essence: The Search for Dark Matter in the Universe G
HIDING IN THE MIRROR
T H E M Y S T E R I O U S A L L U R E O F E X T R A D I M E N S I O N S
,
F R O M P L AT O T O S T R I N G T H E O R Y A N D B E Y O N D
Lawrence M. Krauss
V I K I N G
VIKING
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2196, South Africa Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London
WC2R 0RL, England First published in 2005 by Viking Penguin, a member of
Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
Copyright © Lawrence M. Krauss, 2009
All rights reserved
Figure on page 67: Brendan Crill, The Boomerang Collaboration. All other
drawings by the author.
ISBN: 1-4362-9493-2
CIP data available
Set in Baskerville Book with Helvetica Neue Designed by Daniel Lagin
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For my mother . . . at last!
There is a dimension, beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as
vast as space and as timeless as infinity.
It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and
superstition, and it lies between the pit of man’s fears and the summit of his
knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination.
—Rod Serling, The Twilight Zone
R E M I N I S C E N C E
A DIMENSIONAL LOVE AFFAIR
Two parents wake in the middle of the night to sounds of their daughter’s crying
out in the distance. The father rushes to her bedroom and finds her missing. He
frantically searches everywhere, slowly coming to the grim realization that she is
gone. His wife runs into the room soon afterward, overcome with panic. At his
wit’s end, he dashes out to the living room and picks up the phone and calls a
neighbor. He re— turns to his wife and, in words that are probably unique in the
history of television, tells her:
“Bill’s coming over. He’s a physicist! He ought to be able to help!”
Forty-two years ago, when I was very young, a Twilight Zone episode called
“Little Lost Girl” scared the living daylights out of me. Touching on every
child’s fear of being separated from the safety of parents and home, the episode
told the story of a little girl who falls into another dimension.
When I first thought about writing a book that might focus on our love affair
with extra dimensions, “Little Lost Girl” came immediately to mind, although I
confess I had no memory of the episode’s title or when it aired. After a short bit
of research on the Web, I was able to locate it, and a few days later, along with
forty-two other episodes I had to buy in a Twilight Zone boxed set, it arrived at
my door.
That night I placed the DVD into my computer and relived my childhood
trauma. The eerie thing was that I remembered everything about the episode . . .
except for the physicist! But suddenly, upon hearing that line of dialogue, a rush
of memories came flooding back. Of course! The physicist was the hero of the
episode. He came over in the middle of the night, discovered and traced out the
“portal” in the wall through which the small child and her dog had wandered,
guided her father through the gap, and ultimately reached through and saved the
father and the terrified duo moments before this door to another dimension
closed forever.
I now vividly remember (or I think I remember) being struck by how exotic and