Research by Durham University and several of its partner universities in Australia have concluded that a hypothetical "multiverse," in which our universe is one of many, could be far more hospitable to the development of life than was previously thought.
The studies centred around the relative lack of "dark matter," the mysterious force driving the stars and planets further away from each other. Since the development of Multiverse theory in the 1980s, scientists have been unable to account for why so much less of the mysterious force is observable than the theory would have predicted.
The findings, which are to be published later this month in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, suggest that if the universe forms part of a "multiverse" system, then life may be far more widespread within in it and the conditions for the beginnings of life may also be more favorable.