The false vacuum is a scientific idea about the universe being in an unstable energy state. This means that what we think of as “empty space” might not be truly stable, it could be sitting in a kind of temporary balance, like a ball resting in a shallow dip that could roll down into a deeper hole at any moment. If that happened, the universe could suddenly change or even be destroyed. Philosopher of science Mathias Vogel says that although such a collapse is very unlikely, the idea reveals a bigger issue. Science assumes that the laws of nature, like gravity or electromagnetism, are constant and reliable. But if the false vacuum idea is true, then even those laws could change, meaning they’re not as stable as we thought. Even if this cosmic collapse won’t happen anytime soon, the possibility forces us to rethink how secure our understanding of nature’s laws really is.