![Cosmohedron: A cosmic shape could explain the fundamental nature of the universe Cosmohedron: A cosmic shape could explain the fundamental nature of the universe](https://images.newscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/20095115/SEI_236299942.jpg)
Is space-time the fabric of the universe, or is there something deeper?
Shutterstock/Mohd. Afuza
What is the structure of our physical reality? Physicists have long imagined space and time interweaving into “space-time”, the metaphorical fabric that underlies the cosmos. But there may be something even more fundamental. Instead of space-time’s three spatial dimensions and one of time, the physics of our world could be encoded into a set of odd geometrical shapes – and studying them may chart a new, space-time-free path towards a theory of everything.
“The idea is that space-time somehow has to go, that it has to…