"We became so powerful, we dared think of ourselves as gods!" - Sargon, in the Star Trek TOS Episode "Return To Tomorrow"

Andre Linde of UC Stanford thinks that at least one god-like ability may be within physicists' reach. So far, particle accelerators have  created antimatter and exotic particles never seen in nature. The next generation of these "supercolliders" will provide the hunting ground for the elusive Higgs boson, thought to be the source of all mass. These machines might even create mini black holes.

These feats are insignificant compared to what Nobuyuki Sakai and his colleagues at Yamagata University in Japan are doing.  They have discovered how to use a particle accelerator to create a whole new universe.

The idea of creating another cosmos has a long history. "The story really begins with the question of the origin of our own universe," says Eduardo Guendelman, a physicist at Ben Gurion University in Israel.  The big bang model suggests that the idea of space-time bursting forth in an explosion of energy concentrated in a tiny space opens up a new set of tantalising possibilities.

"People immediately started to wonder what would happen if you put lots of energy in one space in the lab - shot lots of cannons together," Andre Linde, a UC Stanford physicist  says. "Could you concentrate enough energy to set off a mini big bang?"

Sakai believes so. The vital part of his new universe-creation tool kit is a "magnetic monopole" - an odd,  spherical particle that encapsulates an isolated north or south magnetic field. Rather like a black hole, it has a huge mass concentrated into a tiny no more than a nudge to start it inflating. Increasing the monopole's energy density by hurling mass onto it  will give it the needed nudge leading to runaway inflation - in essence, a "big bang." Our calculations show that, given enough energy, the monopole will inflate eternally," Sakai says.

This process could occur naturally. According to Sakai, if a monopole floating through space collided with another massive object it would gain the mass needed to trigger inflation. Sakai suggests that such inflation could be created - and (hopefully) controlled - by hurling particles onto an artificial monopole in an accelerator. This would add mass, and thus energy, to the monopole, creating an entirely new universe.

Then what?  It's one thing to create a universe, but quite another to know where to keep it. Not a problem, Sakai says. First, the process warps space-time enormously, so that it is no longer the Euclidean space we are familiar with. This distorted kind of space doesn't have the same geometry as normal space, so it's not as if the universe would blow up and engulf us.

As these forces compete, the growing baby universe is forced to bubble out from our space-time until its only connection to us is through a narrow space-time tunnel called a wormhole (see the image above, right - click to view full size).

Eventually, however, space-time becomes so distorted that even the "worm-hole" umbilical cord is severed. The baby universe's space-time becomes entirely separate from our own. If a person were sitting inside the monopole, s/he would see space expanding, rushing out in every direction - just as it did after the big bang in our universe. The view from our universe - outside the monopole looking in - would not be nearly as interesting, however.