Stranger Things might be more real than we thought

Looks like truth really is stranger (and perhaps, scarier) than fiction — at least in the case of the science behind Stranger Things.

On Wednesday’s installment of Chelsea, host Chelsea Handler focused on climate change, sitting down to interview stars Joshua Jackson and Don Cheadle, as well as United States Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz.

But things took a bit of a strange turn as Handler questioned Moniz about what might have seemed like the more fictional aspects of 1980s-set Netflix series Stranger Things, asking, “On the show they have a ‘Department of Energy’ and they spend a lot of time investigating a parallel universe. What can you tell us about that?”

Unfortunately for anyone with a very real fear of visiting the Upside Down, Stranger Things’ fictional parallel universe, Moniz answer was not very reassuring.

“Actually, we do work in parallel universes,” said the nuclear physicist, who joked about the audience drawing any inference they wanted from the fact that the the fictional D.O.E. lab operated in the 1980s, before elaborating. “We are also a big supporter of very basic science and that includes trying to understand the basic particles of nature and the structure of the universe. It turns out theoretical physics addressing that looks at things like higher dimensions than three dimensions, and parallel universes.”

You can watch the full clip below.