Access

News and Views

Nature 425, 566-567 (9 October 2003) | doi:10.1038/425566a

Open Innovation Challenges

naturejobs

Cosmology: The shape of the Universe

George F. R. Ellis1

Top

An analysis of astronomical data suggests not only that the Universe is finite, but also that it has a specific, rather rigid topology. If confirmed, this is a major discovery about the nature of the Universe.

What shape is space? On page 593 of this issue, Luminet et al.1 suggest that the topology of the Universe may be a 'Poincaré dodecahedral space' — as illustrated on this week's cover.

  1. George F. R. Ellis is in the Department of Mathematics, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch 7700, Cape Town, South Africa.
    Email: ellis@maths.uct.ac.za