Is our universe just one of many parallel worlds? Do these universes operate under different laws of physics? Are we actually living inside a computer simulation? All of these questions will be discussed in a luminary-packed panel discussion coming up this Saturday at the second annual World Science Festival, which DISCOVERmagazine.com will be covering throughout the week. The panel, titled Infinite Worlds, is already sold out, but we happen to have two of the highly sought-after tickets, and we’re going to give them away through our first Twitter-based contest.
This Tweepstakes is called The Multiverse in 120 Characters or Less—it’s the Twitter-twin of our video contest series Science in Two Minutes or Less, which challenges people to create videos that explain the Big Ideas in science in no more than 120 seconds. (The first contest was String Theory in Two Minutes or Less, and the submission period for the most recent contest, Evolution in Two Minutes or Less, just ended.) The Twitter version is much the same: Your job is to send us a tweet explaining the workings and/or significance of the multiverse theory in no more than 120 characters. Why 120 characters if a tweet can use up to 140? Well, to designate your tweet as a contest entry, you must begin it with a 20-character string—sci120 @DiscoverMag (include a space after the g)—leaving you with 120 little opportunities for brilliance. Entries can be straightforward scientific, poetic, philosophical, creative, didactic, funny, or otherwise.
Whoever sends the best explanation of the multiverse theory (judged by our entirely subjective, deeply secretive process) by midnight tomorrow, EDT, wins the contest and the two tickets. The event is in downtown Manhattan on Saturday at 8pm and despite its subject, we will not be able to use multiverse magic to teleport people there. But we encourage you to enter even if you don’t live close by—you’ll get bragging rights plus a chance to give a great present to a friend who lives in the New York area.
For more context on the multiverse, see our recent story Science’s Alternative to an Intelligent Creator: the Multiverse Theory. If you have any questions on the contest, email webmaster@discovermagazine.com. Good luck, and remember to use this 20-character string at the beginning of your tweet/contest entry: sci120 @DiscoverMag (including a space after the g).
