Sunday, July 13, 2003

NOW THIS TECHNOLOGY MAY HAVE PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS IN OUR FIELD SOMEDAY:

Maybe time travel could be possible (USA Today)

Q: I believe Einstein's General Relativity Theory mathematically proved that time travel into the past is impossible. Do the recent experiments showing that light can be slowed, then returned to its normal speed, have any theoretical implications for time travel?

A: Yes, according to Ronald Mallett, theoretical physicist and professor at the University of Connecticut, recent experiments slowing light's speed may make time-travel feasible. Mallet thinks he can harness slow-light energy and turn the future into the past.

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Mallett thinks time travel is not merely theoretically possible but doable , given the speed-of-light breakthrough. He and a group of scientists at University of Connecticut are designing the first experiment to test Mallett's ideas. They plan to build a time-travel device.

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This is an old article (06/20/2001) but Professor Mallett was recently featured on the Discovery Channel and he also gave a public lecture on his work last week. Unfortunately, the device they're building only transfers atomic particles through time, but I suppose that's a start. A greater drawback is that travel to the past can't go any farther back than when the time machine itself was built, so we'd have to borrow a machine from a friendly ancient alien civilization if we wanted to go back to paleojudaic times. Other articles on Professor Mallett's work can be found in the Village Voice and Ananova.

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