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 an enormous 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 area.

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 indicators dismissed as noise. It was fortunate they did. Examined extra rigorously, one sign appeared to be the signature of a high-energy particle. However it wasn’t what they had been searching for. Furthermore, it appeared unimaginable. Moderately than bearing down from above, this particle was exploding out of the bottom.

That unusual discovering was made in 2016. Since then, all kinds of solutions rooted in recognized physics have been put ahead to account for the perplexing sign, and all have been dominated out. What’s left is surprising 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, optimistic is unfavorable, left is true and time runs backwards. It’s maybe essentially the most mind-melting concept ever to have emerged from the Antarctic ice ­­– however it would possibly simply be true.

The ambitions…