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On a
Scottish hillside, a former mining site has been transformed into a
landscape of the multiverse – exploring both its galaxies and mysteries
about how it all began
Last summer, I saw the multiverse open
up. It happened in the wilds of Dumfries and Galloway, near Crawick, 50
miles (80km) south of Glasgow. It was June, but the multiverse was
rather cold and rainy. Still, I do recommend that you go to see it for
yourself. Take your boots.
The Crawick (pronounced "Croyck")
Multiverse is not a rift in space-time, but a landscape sculpture by
architect and designer Charles Jencks. Constructed from the debris of a
former coal mine, the 22-hectare (55 acre) site is a project of baroque
ambition, speaking at the same time to the mysteries of Neolithic
monuments and to the current speculations of cutting-edge cosmology.
There are all manner of strange objects to
explore: spiralling tumuli, crescent-shaped lagoons, cryptic
inscriptions, amphitheatres and tomb-like chambers. But much more than a
system of strange earthworks, the Crawick Multiverse
is a representation of our current ideas about the universe – and of
the possible other universes that some theories predict to exist, but
which, by definition, we cannot see.
Jencks is no stranger to this kind of grand statement.
His house near Dumfries, about 30 miles (50km) south of Crawick, sits amidst the Garden of Cosmic Speculation:
a landscape of undulating terraces, water pools and ornate metal
sculptures representing all manner of scientific ideas. A terrace shows
the space-time-bending antics of black holes, sculptures represent the
helical forms of DNA, and lakes and landforms illustrate mathematical
fractals.
Jencks also designed the lawn in front of
Edinburgh's Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, a series of
crescent-shaped stepped mounds and pools inspired by chaos theory and,
in his words, by "the way nature organises itself".
Jencks also
has a plan for a landscape at CERN, the European particle physics centre
near Geneva, which is currently awaiting funding.
The Multiverse
project began when the Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry – whose
ancestral home of Drumlanrig Castle is near Crawick – asked Jencks to
reclaim the site. It was dramatically surrounded by rolling hills but
disfigured by slag heaps from open-cast coal mining.
When work began in 2012, the excavations
unearthed thousands of boulders half-buried in the ground. Jencks used
them to create a panorama of standing stones and sculpted tumuli,
organised to frame the horizon and the Sun's movements.
The landscape explores the idea that our Universe is just one of many
"One
theory of pre-history is that stone circles frame the far hills and key
points, and while I wanted to capture today's cosmology, not
yesterday's, I was aware of this long landscape tradition," Jencks says.
The landscape also explores the idea that our Universe is just one of many.
Over
the last decade or so, the argument for a plurality of universes has
moved from fringe speculation to seriously entertained possibility. One
leading multiverse theory supposes that other universes are continually
being spawned in an ongoing process of "eternal inflation" – the same
that caused our own Universe's Big Bang 13.7 billion years ago.
These are the theories explored on this Scottish hillside.
The Multiverse itself is a mound up which
mudstone slabs trace a spiral path. Some of the slabs are carved to
symbolise the other universes that eternal inflation predicts, where
different physical laws apply.
Meanwhile, two corkscrew hillocks
represent our own Milky Way galaxy and its neighbour the Andromeda
galaxy, both of which belong to a cluster called the Local Group.
"But where did they come from? From the
supercluster of galaxies," Jencks says – which are represented in the
landscape by a gaggle of rock-paved artificial drumlins.
"And where did they come from? From the largest structures in the universe, the web of filaments. And so on and on."
Jencks
says that he wanted "to confront the basic question which so many
cosmologists raise: why is our universe so well-balanced, and in so many
ways? What does [this] apparent fine-tuning mean? How can we express
it, make it comprehensible, palpable?"
The issue of fine-tuning is
one close to cosmologists’ hearts. If the laws of physics were changed
even slightly, there would be no stars, planets or life – an argument
that has been used in favour of the existence of God. A multiverse could
be the atheist’s answer. If a multiverse exists, with each universe
having a different set of laws, we don't need a God to have carefully
arranged our universe to suit us; it’s just that we live in one of the
life-friendly versions.
But the main aim of the Crawick Multiverse is
not to disprove God’s existence or even to "teach" the science of the
universe: it is to restore some meaning to this site of mining-induced
desolation, using primarily local materials.
Like the medieval cosmos encoded in Gothic cathedrals, this sort of architecture is primarily symbolic
After
all, the theories themselves are provisional. They will surely look
quite different in 20 years, as will the earthworks once they have had a
chance to bed themselves into the landscape.
Instead, like the
medieval cosmos encoded in Gothic cathedrals, this sort of architecture
is primarily symbolic. It speaks to us through what art historian Martin
Kemp has called "structural intuitions": innate familiarity with the
patterns of the natural world.
Some scientists might look askance at any suggestion that the Crawick Multiverse can be seen as a sacred place.
But
walking into the Multiverse, even the most secular of scientists must
feel some of the awe that a peasant must have experienced on entering a
medieval cathedral – and stepping into its cosmic labyrinth.
This
story is a part of BBC Britain – a series focused on exploring this
extraordinary island, one story at a time. Readers outside of the UK can
see every BBC Britain story by heading to the Britain homepage; you also can see our latest stories by following us on Facebook and Twitter.
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