QUANTUM PHYSICS AND PARALLEL WORLDS

Does the universe behave according to some law? 

Ionian science (ca 500 BC, in Greece/Turkey) suggested that the world could be explained by simple mathematical laws rather than religion. Aristotle (ca 300 BC) took a more philosophical approach to understanding life, where he still included God in the universal laws. He did not believe in the existence of atoms as this, according to him, defied the concept of a soul. Descartes (ca 1600 AD) was the first to explicitly state the concept of the "laws of nature", still including God in his paradigm. For many years, Newtonian science considered physics to be linear, but about 100 years ago this view of science was heavily questioned after the discovery of quantum physics. 

In 1927, Clinton Davisson and Lester Germer were the first to conduct the infamous double-slit experiment. Electrons (or in other versions of the experiment, smaller particles called buckyballs) were sent through a wall where first one slit was open, and then again when both slits were open. When only one slit was open and electrons (or buckyballs) were sent out randomly to pass through the slit, the particles seemed to move like a beam. However, when both slits were open, a single particle created interference patterns - the particle acted like waves rather than a linear beam. This means that when both slits were open the particle entered the first slit, the second slit and neither slit simultaneously. These startling results was the discovery of quantum physics by which "nothing is ever located at a definite point... each particle has some probability of being found anywhere in the universe" (pg 93-94, "The Grand Design", 2010). All modifications of the double-slit experiment have confirmed similar results. At the micro-level, quantum physics is evident, however it is not so apparent at the macro-level. Is the elephant both on the savanna in South Africa but also in my apartment in Europe at the same time? There are hopes to test quantum theory on viruses, that would test the theory on living organisms. 

The question that quantum physics evokes: do parallel worlds exist?

Stephen Hawking's "The Grand Design" (2010) explains that laws of the universe can be described under a candidate theory called M-theory- the theory of physics that aims to explain everything. M-theory is the marriage of, amongst other things, Einsteins theory of relativity and quantum physics.