time travel, impossible projects, time machine, building a time machine, great adventure, space-time, impossible projects
TIME TRAVEL Build a Time Machine
Editorial Comments
Time travel has been around since the imaginative science fiction story of THE TIME MACHINE by H.G. Wells in 1895. Indeed, what a splendid and exciting mode of travel it would be to go back to the past or forward to the future at will. In an attempt to offer an explanation, the author postulated time as the fouth dimension - strangely preceeding the ideas of Einstein.
In scientifically analysing such concepts as time, space, velocity, acceleration and gravity, Einstein has arrived at the view that time and space can not be considered in isolation. He introduced the concept of 'space-time' and has shown that it is not necessarily a straight-line entity, but can be regarded as curved in the presence of solid bodies, thus leading to an explanation of gravity. Since Einstein, many of his theories and predictions proved correct as shown by repeated laboratory experiments. The curvature of space-time, in particular, is an intriguing concept as it seems to suggest that if it could be made to curve into itself then time itself would flow backwards.
Lately, the physicist Amos Ori from the Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, claims to have found the first realistic model of a time machine which can transport us into the past.
His model consists of a vacuum which is shaped like a doughnut - or torus - and which is surrounded by a sphere of normal matter. Nearby objects of immense mass, like black holes, cause time to warp sufficiently to form closed loops within the torus. Theoretically, any point in time between the creation of the machine and the present should be accessible to the time traveller.
John Cramer, a physicist at the University of Washington. is in the midst of experiments to prove that subatomic particles can be made to travel back in time. At present, the University is asking for public donations in order to keep his project going.
However, time travel into the past throws up a strange paradox: what if you travel back in time and murder your grandfather, therefore preventing you from being born in the first place. This 'Grandfather Paradox' is just one of many fascinating aspects of this problem, and attempts to overcome difficulties associated with the concept of time travel make for interesting reading.
THE FOLLOWING ARE EXCERPTS OF RECENT ARTICLES ON THE SUBJET OF TIME TRAVEL AND ON HOW AN ACTUAL TIME-MACHINE COULD BE CONSTRUCTED:
An issue worth reading, if for nothing else, but just to get a handle on the scientific basis of this strange matter.
PUBLIC DONATIONS FOR TIME EXPERIMENT without funding lab space will be lost
Abridged from the original article by the P-I Reporter Tom Paulson tompaulson@seattlepi.com April 8, 2007
The Seattle scientist who wants to test a controversial prediction from quantum theory that says light particles can go backward in time is, himself, running out of time. It's not a wormhole or warp in the space-time continuum. The problem is more mundane -- a black hole in the time-and-money "performance-based" approach to funding research.
"I guess you could say we're now living on borrowed time," wryly joked John Cramer, a physicist at the University of Washington. "All we need to keep going is maybe $20,000, but nobody seems that interested in funding this project."
It's a project that aims to do a conceptually simple bench-top test for evidence of something Albert Einstein called "spooky action at a distance." The test involves using a crystal to split a photon, a light particle, into two reduced-energy photons that -- through careful manipulation -- Cramer thinks could reveal a flash of time traveling backward. If his experiment with splitting photons actually works, he hopes to find evidence of a photon going backward in time. Cramer works with the assistance of his UW colleague Warren Nagourney who previously assisted with the research of Hans Dehmelt, the UW scientist who won the 1989 Nobel Prize in physics.
An interesting tongue-in-cheek comment by a student: "in a stunning display of the universal 'paradox protection' mechanism, Professor Cramer's proposed experiment retroactively caused NASA's Institute for Advanced Concepts to be de-funded, thus preventing the experiment and the resulting temporal paradox".
HOW TO DONATE
The University of Washington has set up a special account to which individuals or groups can contribute funds for John Cramer's experiment.
Tax-deductible contributions to the project may be made by contacting Jennifer Raines, UW Department of Physics, at jraines@phys.washington.edu , or mailing a check made out to the University of Washington with a notation on the check directing deposit to the account for "Non-Local Quantum Communication Experiment" to:
Jennifer Raines, Administrator
Department of Physics
University of Washington
Box 351560
Seattle, WA 98195-1560
PUBLIC DONATIONS FOR TIME EXPERIMENT