Some believe it is just a figment of overactive imaginations. But evidence is growing that the so-called “axis of evil” – a pattern apparently imprinted on the radiation left behind by the big bang – may be real, posing a threat to standard cosmology.
According to the standard model, the universe is isotropic, or much the same everywhere. However, in 2005, Kate Land and João Magueijo of Imperial College London noticed a curious pattern in the map of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) created by NASA’s WMAP satellite. It seemed to show that some hot and cold spots in the CMB are…
