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Reality Check: The Universe Is (Probably) Not a Hologram

The holographic principle faces scrutiny as Fermilab's Holometer experiment finds no evidence for our universe being a hologram.

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(Credit: dim4ik-69/shutterstock) Sometimes science gives us mind-blowing results that fundamentally force us to revise our perception of the universe we inhabit. From discovering that Earth is a sphere to the theory of special relativity, science has readjusted our grasp of reality time and again. This is not one of those times. Researchers at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Illinois recently carried out an experiment to prove whether or not the entire universe, as we know it, is nothing more than a hologram. To find evidence of our holographic existence, researchers used a so-called Holometer to probe for the universe's "pixels." Long story short, they didn't find what they were looking for.

The Holometer experiment is based on the holographic principle, the groundwork for which was laid in in the 1970s by physicist Gerard 't Hooft. The holographic principle is an offshoot of the study of black hole thermodynamics pioneered ...

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