Scientists try to create new universe

While Stephen Hawking contemplates the future of our existence, other scientists are taking some concrete steps toward ensuring it--such as creating another universe.

Arstechnica notes that Japanese physicists are apparently serious about an experiment to create a "baby universe" in the lab. As nutty as it may sound, the project is based in part on an established phenomenon known as the Higgs field--which, as everyone knows, involves such elements as false vacuums and Z bosons.

Needless to say, all of this is well beyond the reach of our puny intellect. But it still makes for some interesting reading.