The vast region of unbroken green that surrounds the Amazon River and its tributaries has been under assault by settlers and developers for 400 years. Time and again, the forest has defied predictions that it was doomed. But now the danger is more real and imminent than ever before as loggers level trees, dams flood vast tracts of land, and gold miners poison rivers with mercury. In Peru the forests are being cleared to grow coca for cocaine production. “It’s dangerous to say the forest will disappear by a particular year,” says Philip Fearnside of Brazil’s National Institute for Research in the Amazon, “but unless things change, the forest will disappear.”

     That would be more than a South American disaster. It would be an incalculable catastrophe for the entire planet. Moist tropical forests are distinguished by their canopies of interlocking leaves and branches that shelter creatures below from sun and wind, and by their incredible variety of animal and plant life. If the forests vanish, so will more than one million species—a significant part of the earth’s biological diversity and genetic heritage. Moreover, the burning of the Amazon could have dramatic effects on global weather patterns—for example, heightening the warming trend that may result from the greenhouse effect. 

 This is an era of greater access and convenience based upon instant communication, anytime, anywhere. The latest technology has created a new society and a new sub-culture, one that disregards the differences between class and race. These are the people who engage in online chatting. 

 Chatters never cease to be amazed by the wonders that the Internet has created. Not only has the Internet allowed users to work from home and to do the shopping from home, but it also has allowed users to socialize without ever leaving the house. One of the advantages of online socializing is its convenience. By several clicks, a user can produce a list of hundreds of people with whom to chat, and all are of requested qualities.

        The idea of parallel universes, worlds that exist side by side along with our own, used to be viewed with suspicion by scientists as being the realm of cranks and at best, mystics. Any scientists who dared to work on parallel universes were often subject to ridicule.

        However, the tide has turned dramatically today and the issue of parallel universes has come to fascinate scientists well beyond mere speculation. Physicists and astronomers around the world are now wondering what parallel universes may look like and how they were born. It has been postulated that parallel universes occupy the same space as our own in some ghostly manner.

        Like our own universe, a parallel universe is an intersection of time and space and contains matter, stars, galaxies, and living things. In other words, parallel universes are very similar to our own. There may be human beings who are duplicates of ourselves. Furthermore, they are connected to us multidimensionally through mechanisms explainable only by the theory of quantum physics. Normally, parallel universes do not interact with each other. However, some scientists believe that at times the so-called wormholes may open up, making it possible to communicate and travel between them.

        It is very likely that our universe is not alone at all. Instead, it is one of many possible parallel universes. Still, some scientists smugly refuse to admit that parallel universes or dimensions can exist next to ours, just beyond our grasp.