non-trivial topology of the Universe

This week we have a guest post by Shaun Hotchkiss (a fellow cosmologist and blogger at trenches of discovery):

If the universe was a torus with a radius less than the current particle horizon, what sort of characteristic signatures would we expect to see in the large scale structure and/or the CMB? and for a change, a bonus question which tackles the sociology of science (also proposed by Shaun):

What do you think is the reason why scientists are underrepresented in political institutions?