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Two separate and independent means of observation have shown indications that the universe may have an axis of symmetry:<br /><br />Axis of evil' a cause for cosmic concern.<br />13 April 2007<br />Zeeya Merali<br />http://space.newscientist.com/article/mg19425994.000?DCMP=NLC-nletter&nsref=mg19425994.000<br /><br />One of the observational methods, by detection of the polarization of light from distant galaxies, mirrors earlier observations of Ralston and Nodland:<br /><br />Is the Universe Birefringent?<br />"To be more specific, we found that the rate of rotation depends on<br />the angle between the direction of travel of the wave and a fixed<br />direction in space, pointing approximately toward the constellation<br />Sextans from Earth. The more parallel the direction of travel of the<br />wave is with this fixed direction, the greater the rotation. The<br />amount of rotation is also proportional to the distance of travel of<br />the wave. These are the only two dependencies of the rotation.<br />"The curious effect is illustrated in the diagram above. In this<br />diagram, Earth is at the center, and the direction toward Sextans is<br />represented by a red "anisotropy axis.'' The axis extends from Earth<br />toward Sextans in one direction, and toward the constellation Aquila<br />in the opposite direction. A plane-polarized radio wave emitted by<br />Galaxy A (green) travels toward Earth in a direction almost parallel<br />to the anisotropy axis (red). On the other hand, a plane-polarized<br />radio wave emitted by Galaxy B (blue) approaches Earth in a direction<br />almost perpendicular to the anisotropy axis."<br />http://www.aip.org/png/html/birefrin.htm<br /><br />Anisotropy in Electromagnetic Interactions.<br />http://www.rochester.edu/college/rtc/Borge/aniso.html</safety_wrapper <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>