Cosmic Axis of Evil: What It Means for You

No, I am not talking about nasty reptilian aliens from the Gama Quadrant. The cosmic “axis of evil” is a name astrophysicists are giving to a newly discovered feature of our universe: a spiral pattern imprinted on radiation left over from the big bang. It has long been thought that matter is uniformly distributed throughout space, with no particular preference in any direction. Now there is new evidence (New Scientist, April 13, 2007) suggesting that the entire structure of the universe has the orientation of a corkscrew pattern: over 300 quasars fit into this overall whole twisting structure. Data from 1660 spiral galaxies also show the same overall orientation. If such a thing is true it would suggest that directionality, or anisotropy, rather than isotropy is the basis for galactic organization at the largest scale. Thus, the whole universe may in fact be based on spiral geometry, rather than being evenly spread out and uniform in all directions. So when you see or imagine spirals in your life, know that you are connecting to the most basic, fundamental structure of the whole universe.