Is our universe just one of many? While the concept is bizarre, it's a real possibility, according to scientists who have devised the first test to investigate the idea. Researchers hope to analyze data from the European Space Agency's Planck satellite to look for signals of cosmological bubble collisions that could prove the theory.

Physicists say they have found something potentially extraordinary in the haze of microwaves permeating the cosmos that was left over after the Big Bang — giant rings they said could be evidence of a universe that existed before the Big Bang roughly 13.7 billion years ago.

The authors present their new findings that the multiple "pocket universes" in the mutiverse predicted by prevailing theories in cosmology may not be inhospitable to life as previously thought and could contain life as well.

Scientists from Stanford University have estimated how many different universes could have appeared as a result of the Big Bang.

When the world's most powerful particle accelerator starts up later this year, exotic new particles may offer a glimpse of the existence and shapes of extra dimensions. Researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of California-Berkeley say that the telltale signatures left by a new class of particles could distinguish between possible shapes of the extra spatial dimensions predicted by string theory.

Michio Kaku argues that new space probes will provide critical new information on parallel universes, cosmology, and wormholes that humanity will need to survive in the long-term.

Cosmologists are debating whether one consequence of the multiple universe theory is that our own universe could be a giant simulation running on some alien computer.

Cosmologists debate the anthropic principle and the existence of multiple universes at a recent conference.

The frontiers of physics have gradually expanded to incorporate ever more abstract (and once metaphysical) concepts such as a round Earth, invisible electromagnetic fields, time slowdown at high speeds, quantum superpositions, curved space, and black holes. Over the past several years the concept of a multiverse has joined this list. It is grounded in well-tested theories such as relativity and quantum mechanics, and it fulfills both of the basic criteria of an empirical science: it makes predictions, and it can be falsified. Scientists have discussed as many as four distinct types of parallel universes. The key question is not whether the multiverse exists but rather how many levels it has.

Physicists have devised a new experiment that will be used in the quest for exotic forces in nature and "additional spatial dimensions."