in 1995 physicist Ed Witten proposed the existence of
an 11th dimension

he did so to in order to account for a troubling anomaly
in String Theory: five different and seemingly valid string
theories had emerged, and this had theoretical physics
spinning its wheels

Witten's extra dimension triggered a revolution in
thinking about nature of the universe; for example,
it allowed for the existence multi-dimensional
membranes

these membranes, with sufficient energy,
could be as big a universe

according to M-theory, our universe resides in
one such membrane, and further, it may exist
side by side with other universes that occupy
other membranes in a higher dimensional space

the video below presents these propositions in
greater depth



the above video is a brief excerpt from NOVA's
The Elegant Universe, it can be seen in full here

Related Posts:
- String Theory
- From String Theory to M-Theory
- M Theory & The Weakness of Gravity
- M Theory and The 11th Dimension
- The Big Bang as per String Theory
- The Lure of Unification Theory
- Inter-Universe Communication via the "GravityPhone"