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 group of antennas float excessive above the ice, scanning over 1,000,000 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 knowledge once more, significantly these alerts dismissed as noise. It was fortunate they did. Examined extra fastidiously, one sign gave the impression to be the signature of a high-energy particle. But it surely wasn’t what they have been searching for. Furthermore, it appeared unattainable. Quite 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 options rooted in identified 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 present in parallel with it. On this mirror world, optimistic is damaging, left is correct and time runs backwards. It’s maybe probably the most mind-melting concept ever to have emerged from the Antarctic ice ­­– however it may simply be true.

The ambitions…