Update: Details of the Snowglobe's Orbit and Timeline
Adelos is a drifting island in Greek mythology that was both invisible and unattached to the ocean floor. Poseidon anchored the island with chains, making it visible and stationary. Once visible, it was known as Delos, and served as the birth place of Apollo. There are, of course, many parallels between the island in LOST and Adelos. Perhaps most importantly, the island seems largely invisible and capable of occupying several locations around the surface of the earth.
You've know doubt heard of antimatter. But there's another form of opposite matter, called "mirror" or "shadow" matter. It too is the subject of serious speculation among particle physicists and string theorists. In fact, a promising version of string theory (E8 x E8 heterotic superstring, associated with M-theory) predicts its existence. What is mirror-matter? It is matter that operates just like "normal" matter yet exists, invisibly, almost undetectably, and in parallel to normal matter. Entire planets, stars, meteors -- in short, an entire parallel world -- of mirror matter has been proposed. Even a twin of the Sun, Nemesis, has been hypothesized.
We can't see mirror-matter because it interacts with mirror photons, not our photons. Mirror matter and our matter typically pass right through each other. But, gravity is "shared" across the worlds, meaning, for example, that a mirror matter planet could orbit a normal-matter star. If it did, however, we wouldn't see it and could pass right through it. There are exceptions to this lack of interaction, however. Photons and mirror-photons can undergo "kinetic mixing," and other particles can interact under certain circumstances. For more on mirror-matter, check out "Through the Looking Glass" in Science News:
http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20000909/bob10.asp
If there is a pseudo-science explanation for LOST, it would seem that the explanation must be a complicated one. It turns out that published speculation regarding "mirror-matter" might, by itself, explain a huge number of puzzles of the show. This might not be THE underlying premise of the show, but I think it shows tremendous promise, and it's worth sharing. To make it brief, here's a list of mysteries and the corresponding mirror-matter explanation (interwoven with my own speculation).
Why is there a giant foot on the island?
* It's an Easter egg -- it may have been built by the Others, but its real purpose is to pay homage to Professor Robert FOOT, the main exponent of mirror matter and the author of the only accessible book on the topic.
Why was there a geodesic dome in the hatch?
* Well, if nothing else, it's an allusion to E8 mathematics. (It's no surprise that mathematicians will be among the new characters.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:E8_roots_zome.jpg
Why is the island a snow-globe that is hard or impossible to exit?
* Because it's a sphere of mirror-matter. Anything larger than a large meteor would have been detected by now. Keeping the island small fits with published speculation and makes it more plausible.
Why did they bother having Arzt note the many new species and Carl point out the unknown constellations?
* Physicists speculating about life on an Earth-like mirror-matter world note expected difference in species and constellations.
What's the purpose of the DHARMA Initiative?
* To colonize the basically isolated island. Experimentation primarily focused on making the island habitable by humans by providing a proper ecosystem (with animal predators, etc)., ensuring proper weather cycles, etc., but also trying to address the the Valenzetti Equation in a world with different physical constants. Should humanity be wiped-out, even by nuclear war, those on the island would be safe. The DI can repopulate Earth after the date of humanity's demise predicted by the equation.
Where is the island?
* More likely than not, it is oscillating (that is, orbiting) around the center of Earth. Remember, matter and mirror-matter typically don't interact with one another. Foot actually speculates that a rock of mirror matter would slip through your hand and oscillate about the center of the earth (passing right through it, but nevertheless attracted by the warping of gravity caused by the earth's mass). You might think of the island as the electron in a hydrogen molecule. Likewise, you can imagine the island as the small black dot in this logo: http://www.lostpedia.com/wiki/Image:Dharmafvh7n.jpg
Why can't the island easily be found?
* One, it's probably in orbit, meaning, at best, it cycles through different locations near the Earth's surface as it orbits. Two, it's basically invisible, being mirror-matter. An EMP might give away its momentary location, but it would leave that spot shortly after the pulse, making it a wild-goose-chase until it returns, temporarily, to the area. And even then, it would still be invisible.
How is the island accessible?
* The chirality (the handedness) of the interactions between mirror-matter particles is "right-handed," whereas interactions between "our" particles are "left-handed." In a very simple sense, to switch between "worlds," you switch chirality. JJ and Damon needed a "simple" way to pull this off. It seems the island disturbs the electromagnetic field of the surrounding matter on Earth as it moves, causing storms. Desmond, Flight 815, Eko's plane, the Black Rock, Danielle's vessel, and maybe Naomi's chopper apparently "switched" when the storms (or EMP) caused a shift in chirality. The island was beneath them when they switched. Hanso vessels ( e.g., the sub) can pull off the switch "unnaturally," with technology.
"A KIND OF Casimir effect"?
* Short-hand for saying the island naturally facilitates crossing between the left-handed and right-handed "worlds." In this case, however, we're avoiding mini-wormholes (despite their appeal!).
Why is or might time and daylight be different on the island?
* Being a small sphere of mirror-matter, it would be odd if its rotational period (a day) would be exactly 24 Earth hours. Days might be longer or shorter than our days by a significant but not-so-noticeable amount.
What's up with the temple?
* It might be a temple like the earliest temples on Earth -- meaning it operates as a solar calendar (for the twin of our sun that lights the the island sky). It might be a nice way to explain the timing of the Purge -- synchronize it with an astrologically significant moment based on the island's calendar, like ancient sacrificial rituals.
What's with the children, health effects, and birth problems?
* Gravitational and electromagnetic forces would be different on the island, which would no doubt affect development, just as it would be affected (though more dramatically) on the Moon; biological processes might likewise be affected.
Anything notable about causality and the island?
* Sure. Being in a right-handed world seems to free you causally from our left-handed world, save for gravity and the interactions between the worlds as partly detailed below. I see switching over as a process that rips you out of a causal chain with respect to electromagnetic force. Were it not for the switch at the time of the crash, the Losties would have died. Desmond saved them. Based on the course-correction notion, returning to our chirality (in a safe location) would put their lives in course-correction jeopardy.
Why was Locke wet when he left the sub?
* He used that technology. The island was in the ocean at the time when Locke switched temporarily to left-handed matter. The open hatch let the water flood in.
What about Naomi's story?
* True. That's where Smokey comes in. See below.
What is the basis for the smoke?
* It's a consequence of mirror-matter theory. Foot (in eloquent language and so many words) hypothesizes that matter and mirror-matter can interact when photons and mirror-photons are present together. They "mix" kinetically and allow the two forms of matter to interact through electromagnetic force. The smoke is an interpretation of what light mixing with mirror-light looks like (kind of like diluting light by removing half of the photons).
I've provided evidence before of how the monster matches the profile of light from deep-sea sources, namely, just the sort of robots Naomi mentioned, and the glowing tentacles of a giant squid at the sonar fence. (I won't be offended if you hate that idea ;).)
In short, the appearance of the "smoke monster" in the forms we've seen so far points to an orbit of the island that lets it skim below sea level, below the reach of our sunlight. That typically limits the appearance of smoke to times when light is present in abyssal depths of the ocean. Therefore, the smoke -- and the interaction with our matter -- is rare.
But we can give a "realistic" explanation of what appears to have happened when 815 crashed:
The plane "landed" on the island when the EM pulse acted to switch the plane's chirality. By the next morning, the island had shifted to a trench near Bali. The French sub Nautile ( http://www.ifremer.fr/fleet/systemes_sm/engins/nautile/nautile.htm) coincidentally was on a deep-sea mission to check out the ocean trench. It descended to its maximum operating depth of 6,000 meters (~ 4 miles) and then flipped on the lights at its bow. Suddenly, its bow was scraping along some strange material. In fact, the light allowed the lighted hull of the sub to interact with the earth of the island. Thinking they must be scraping along the ocean floor, the pilot ascended a bit and then noticed what appeared to be the cockpit of the plane that just crashed near Fiji the day before. It was eery and ghost-like, but then again, it's muddy down there, and well, maybe they were mistaken about where the plane crashed. He saw the body of the pilot and picked him up with the hydraulic arm at the front of the sub. Is that really the pilot? Probably. But wait, there are more bodies drifting about... The sub pilot dropped the pilot's body because the sub was running low on battery power and needed to surface.
Oddly, the plane was gone when the sub went back down the next day. In fact, very oddly, the plane only seemed to be around every 3 days or so. Indeed, other sub operators would later report seeing the ghosts of the passengers of Flight 815 on their own missions far away from Bali.
On several runs, the submarine descended to document the bodies and wreck. They often descended, flipped on the lights, found the area of the sub illuminated by the bow lights scraping along, and then launched the tiny robot "Robin" ( http://www.ifremer.fr/fleet/systemes_sm/remorques/robin.htm) from its garage on the front of the sub. Robin could scoot around the odd terrain more safely and easily than the sub. Whenever a body was discovered, the operator would take photographs of the face with Robin's still camera and flash. On one occasion, Robin became ensnared on a body. The operator then reeled in the robot and body with the winch in the robot's garage.
. . . . .
And Jacob and the apparitions?
From a more faith-based standpoint, the island is "the other side." The island is the other world that Richard Malkin alluded to, where miracles might be possible. I think JJ and Damon saw LOST as an opportunity to provide a pseudo-science explanation for the experience of psychics. Psychics and special people can cross between the worlds. The "apparitions" are the result of seances. Mr. Eko's face was photographed by the robot and viewed by psychics watching the TV news. One of them then performed a seance and "summoned" the spirits in Eko's past.
Running with the idea of seances, one good bet for Jacob is Richard Malkin, the psychic who told Claire her baby mustn't be raised by an Other (or, "another"). He's supposed to be returning this season.
. . . . .
Bunny 15?
Mini-wormholes or reversed time on a "macro scale" for right-handed mirror matter could explain the duplicate Bunny. Were they just experiments that played with the Casimir effect of the island? Or, is a mini-wormhole a central plot device? We'd all love to know. If there were an actual "mini-wormhole" IN the Orchid, however, I'm sure it would be visibly obvious. Here's a favorite thread on the topic: http://thefuselage.com/Threaded/showthread.php?t=83627
. . . . .
This theory inadvertently duplicates part of an earlier and excellent theory by Big Mouth. If you're confused or dislike part of what's above, he offers what is no doubt a clearer alternative, also based on mirror matter.
http://eyemsick.blogspot.com/2006/04/mirror-matter-theory-of-lost.html
Theory by MikeNY
