IN THE Antarctic, issues occur at a glacial tempo. Simply ask Peter Gorham. For a month at a time, he and his colleagues would watch a large balloon carrying a set of antennas float excessive above the ice, scanning over one million sq. kilometres of the frozen panorama for proof of high-energy particles arriving from house.

When the experiment returned to the bottom after its first flight, it had nothing to point out for itself, bar the odd flash of background noise. It was the identical story after the second flight greater than a yr later.

Whereas the balloon was within the sky for the third time, the researchers determined to go over the previous information once more, significantly these alerts dismissed as noise. It was fortunate they did. Examined extra rigorously, one sign appeared to be the signature of a high-energy particle. But it surely wasn’t what they have been on the lookout for. Furthermore, it appeared unimaginable. Quite than bearing down from above, this particle was exploding out of the bottom.

That unusual discovering was made in 2016. Since then, all types of ideas rooted in recognized physics have been put ahead to account for the perplexing sign, and all have been dominated out. What’s left is stunning in its implications. Explaining this sign requires the existence of a topsy-turvy universe created in the identical huge bang as our personal and current in parallel with it. On this mirror world, constructive is damaging, left is correct and time runs backwards. It’s maybe essentially the most mind-melting concept ever to have emerged from the Antarctic ice ­­– however it may simply be true.

The ambitions…