Fittingly, in October 2003, Jean-Pierre Luminet and his
colleagues at the Paris Observatory published a paper in the
esteemed journal Nature arguing, on the basis of data collected
by a satelite called the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe
(WMAP), that the universe is, in fact, a dodecahedron! [The
Economist explains: "This American satellite has been examining
the microwave radiation (Cosmic Microwave Background or Cosmic
Background Radiation) generated shortly after the universe
began. The wavelength of this radiation is remarkably pure, but
like a musical note it has harmonics associated with it. These
harmonics, like those of a note, reflect the shape of the object
in which the waves were generated. In the case of the note, that
object is a musical instrument. In the case of the microwave
background, that object is the universe itself. "The most widely
accepted model of the universe suggests that it is both flat and
infinite. In this case, flatness does not mean it is two-
dimensional, but that the spac