Space's Deepest Secrets

A growing number of physicists are reaching

an astonishing conclusion...

That are universe is a hologram,

and our true lives play out on a flat bubble

that surrounds space and time.

Now we may finally be glimpsing that next revolution in physics.

Today, pioneering technology

is taking these ideas off the blackboard

and testing them in the real world.

What if the holographic universe had, kind of, glitches,

and those glitches could be our observables?

As scientists put

the weirdest ideas in physics to the test...

That would be one of the most spectacular discoveries

that our species has ever accomplished.

Their quest takes them to places that bend reality

to breaking points,

probing the first seconds of the big bang,

and hunting for the glitches

that could reveal we're all just holograms.

We're on the verge of unlocking the secrets

of the holographic universe,

a theory that could change the way we perceive everything.

captions paid for by discovery communications

Scientists around the world

are racing to answer and unusual question...

Are we living in a hologram?

The world around us looks and feel real,

but the cosmos could be playing an astonishing trick on us.

I think everyone out there is familiar

with the idea of a hologram.

We even have them on our credit cards.

And what you can see when you look into a hologram

is 3-dimensional image,

something that seems to have volume.

But a hologram itself is just 2-dimensional.

It's just a sheet of little film.

The idea sounds crazy at first,

but as physicists dig deeper

into the math that describes the cosmos,

it is beginning to tell them something seriously strange...

That the universe is nothing like we think it is.

So is it possible that we've been fooled this whole time?

If the universe is a hologram,

it means true reality is 2-dimensional,

and our 3-dimensional world is just an illusion.

Could such a wild idea be true?

Legendary physicist Leonard Susskind

was part of a group of theorists

who began to suspect there's more to our universe

than the reality we see.

They were trying to solve one of the greatest dilemmas

in the world of physics.

Gravity and quantum mechanics

were at each other's throats, so to speak.

Putting these ideas like this together

has become the central question of physics.

The laws of gravity that describe

how big things like planets, move,

seem to conflict with the laws of quantum physics

that describe how very small things, like electrons, behave.

Leonard experimented with the math

to try to make the two theories work better together.

He began to imagine everything in the universe existing

in two places simultaneously.

And when he did, all the problems

with the mathematics dissolved away.

I had thought very hard about this problem

and eventually came to the conclusion

that everything is really stored

on the boundaries of the universe

far away on some large sphere,

far from where everything is taking place.

According to Leonard's theory,

everything we see in the universe,

from the planet we live on

to the star that brings us warmth

and the billion neighboring stars

that make up the galaxy that we call home...

are all highly elaborate projections.

Everything we perceive in three dimensions

could originate from a gigantic bubble

that wraps around our cosmos,

a blueprint for building a universe

mapped out in two dimensions

that we experience as a 3-dimensional hologram.

To think that our 3-d reality is really arisen

from a 2-d true reality, now that's really mind-blowing.

The idea that our reality

is holographic projection from the edge of the universe,

leaves the world of physics reeling.

Many people thought were nuts.

I remember one of my friends coming and saying,

half-jokingly, "you used to be a good physicist,

but you've lost your marbles."

But as scientists around the world

work on the math of this idea, the numbers begin to add up.

The holographic principle appears to be the theory

that makes all our physics work together.

We have many different ways of understanding the universe.

And it's generally accepted in science

that what we accept as being true

is what we observe as being true.

But sometimes the math is so compelling

that you just can't ignore it.

Scientists have learned to take

even the most unlikely theory seriously

if the math stacks up.

100 years ago, Einstein's theory of relativity sounded crazy.

But the atomic bomb showed that it works.

Today, the equations that describe the universe

as a hologram add up.

So scientists have to take them seriously.

Mathematics gives us a superpower.

It can envision the possibility that our entire existence

is nothing more than a holographic simulation.

It really is the engine of our greatest achievements.

It really does sounds completely nutty,

but our universe could, in fact, be one big hologram.

We scientists have to follow the evidence

no matter the crazy places that it will take us.

That's what it means to do science.

Is our existence really being played out

in two dimensions somewhere else?

And if so, why does it feel so real to us?

In the city of Provo, Utah, physicist Daniel Smalley

uses a practical approach to investigate this mystery.

He builds holograms from scratch in his lab.

The magic of a hologram is that it a contains

a 3-d information for a volume in a 2-d surface.

Here we see that the 2-d pattern of lines

is actually recreating a 3-dimensional image

that appears to be behind the plate.

Could our universe be playing a similar trick,

manipulating light to create our galaxies?

Daniel thinks a glass hologram, like this one, is too simple.

It only works when you view it from the correct angle.

Their limitation is that they can't go

beyond these boundaries,

the boundaries created by the plate.

If we're not looking directly into that pattern of lines,

we're not gonna see an image.

If our universe is a hologram like this,

the cosmos would appear to flash

in and out of existence as our galaxy spins.

But this behavior has never been observed.

A glass hologram isn't the answer.

Daniel is working on a new generation of hologram

that gets us much closer.

It manipulates solid matter instead of light.

Our team here has been working on a new type

of 3-dimensional display

that actually uses not just light

but also physical, material objects to create 3-d images

that enable us to be able to see those 3-d images

from every direction.

One laser moves a particle of cellulose

through space,

and another shines colorful light onto it,

creating a picture in mid-air.

And then point by point, we're able to build a 3-d image.

Daniel's team creates a miniature hologram

that you can touch and can be seen from any angle.

This is a giant leap closer to a hologram

that feels like the reality we see around us.

But this isn't concrete proof.

The holographic light source can be blocked.

Light is entering the system,

and if we block that direction with out hands,

our universe disappears.

And this, of course,

is not how we expect our real universe to behave.

So even this technology is not quite perfect

for building a miniature universe.

Daniel's holograms are a poor fit

for the reality we experience.

So is it game over for the holographic principle?

It's extraordinarily difficult to test these ideas.

It doesn't mean that it's impossible to test these ideas.

It just means it is a grand challenge.

You have to realize that

there have been many times in our history

where physics has confronted us

with something that just didn't make sense.

Scientists don't want to give up

on the holographic principle easily

because the math adds up.

But if this radical idea is correct,

there must be evidence in our own universe that confirms it.

The holographic principle could be a game changer

and solve a really fundamental problem

in our understanding of the cosmos,

so the stakes are really high.

The hunt is now on to find clues

to the holographic nature of reality.

The search takes scientists into the physics

of the most extreme objects in the universe.

Could black holes prove that the universe we live in

is a hologram?

And can this $3 million machine hunt down glitches