Science decided to be unfun this morning. Physicists at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology demonstrated that a single photon cannot be accelerated beyond the speed of light. This implies that faster-than-light time travel is impossible. FFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUU…
The research team, led by Professor Du Shengwang, set out to close the debate by measuring the speed of a photon, or the fundamental unit of light. Du adheres to Einstein’s special theory of relativity, stating that the speed of light is the “traffic law of the universe” that nothing can exceed. People have been arguing for decades that going faster than light could possibly allow you to travel forward in time. By showing that the theory holds up, Du pretty much went “Nuh uh!” and killed the party.
But! The study says nothing about wormholes and the many possibilities brought up by Einstein’s general theory of relativity. So maybe this one kind of time travel is impossible and the others still are? My inner child is not giving up so easily! [Discovery News]
olearymo
Tuesday, July 26, 2011 at 8:31 AMWhat a load. So he proved photons (light) can’t move faster than light. Oh, well done. Noone was arguing that they could!
No mention of tachyons, the ‘apparent’ ftl speeds of neutrinos, and as author pointed out, wormholes etc.
Proving something can’t travel faster than itself is science these days?!
wsDK_II
Tuesday, July 26, 2011 at 8:56 AMsomething that humans should have learned by now, is that we are always learning new things. What we thought we ‘know’ now is different to what we ‘know’ in a few years.
but then scientists are usually pig headded and dont see the forest for the trees.
Steve
Tuesday, July 26, 2011 at 6:52 PMScientists are often guilty of skepticism (rather than gullibility) but saying we’re ‘pigheaded’ is extremely ignorant. The entire basis of modern science is built upon the constant scrutiny of information. You can thank scientists for every single innovation since the industrial era, even if they themselves don’t prescribe to the label.
You’ll find that scientific journals are often the most carefully-worded, precisely because they have to acknowledge that there is room for discovery (and at times, serendipity).
A common (but poor) analogy used by the luddites and those in denial, is the Wright Brothers, seemingly proving science wrong by inventing the plane. But no-one ‘knew’ flight was impossible in the first place, merely difficult to achieve with the technology of the time.
That experiment never violated the laws of physics (as time travel does and this experiment proves), it embraces it. And therein lies the difference between ground-breaking discovery and the impossible: NOTHING can violate the laws of physics. Something that our current and future knowledge will always have in common.
The day I we have time travel is the day I have a perpetual motion machine powering my car.
EckyThump
Tuesday, July 26, 2011 at 9:02 AMWhat about the recent discovery of a time lens? And don’t forget warp… wait, it doesn’t matter about the speed of light! what’s the point of going forward if you can’t get back with the stock market report ten years from now!! Besides, if they actually do find a way it wont involve travelling faster than light anyway. Let’s face it the closer you get to the speed of light the more you mass increases, so if you do get there you’ll be fatter than the Michelin man. #]
Pauly
Tuesday, July 26, 2011 at 9:59 AMAnd let’s not forget Flux Capacitors.
Gabriel
Tuesday, July 26, 2011 at 10:16 AMAnd don’t forget drugs. Time travel is definitely possible with drugs
Jack
Tuesday, July 26, 2011 at 10:56 AMSee i thought this was an obvious fact, science has already known that the speed of light is the universal sped limit. But the thing is the faster an object travels, the time relative to it slows down. So we don’t need to go faster then the speed of light to achieve time travel we just have to get close to it.
The down side to this is that there is a set rate that a person can time travel into the future. So you cant just hit 2000000ad and get there. Traveling at the speed of light i think the rate of time relative to the person is 1 year experienced by the traveler = 100 years experienced be everyone else outside of the ship.
Steve
Tuesday, July 26, 2011 at 6:56 PMThis is arguably true, but if you’re traveling at relativistic speeds, while time ‘slows down’, you’ll also be experiencing something often referred to as ‘mass dilation.’
The very energy used to accelerate you is being converted to mass and your own body would exceed the mass of stars (and further). It’s impossible either way.
Mr Smooth
Tuesday, July 26, 2011 at 12:12 PMAnything that travels faster than the speed of light can’t be visually observed, because (duh) the light can’t bounce off the object. How were they detecting how fast the light was travelling? How were the detecting the light reached its destination?
Franz
Tuesday, July 26, 2011 at 5:52 PMWhat? did people think that by travelling really fast that they could travel through time or something? I could’ve told them that was bolus. All that wasted money.
Steve
Tuesday, July 26, 2011 at 6:41 PMPretty sure no reasonable person thought time travel was feasible in the first place. Still… it’s times like this that make me think “Son, you were born too soon. You’ll never explore the universe!”
Noooooo
Stevie-Steve-Steve
Tuesday, July 26, 2011 at 6:45 PMI will never again enjoy Doctor Who now that my brain knows it’s impossible. Argh!
veema
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Darin Glanville
Tuesday, July 26, 2011 at 11:16 PMWhat is this BS. I am an engineer. and any i say again ANY engineer or scientist sayin ganything is impossible is a either very arogant or just plain stupid. why is time travel impossible . because somebody says so . of course it will happen. flight was impossible at one time. crossing the ocean was impossible at one time. the job of engineers and scientists is to do the impossible . not to give up .
OF COURSE SPEED FASTER THEN THE SPEED OF LIGHT IS POSSIBLE – AND WILL BE DISCOVERED SOON.
ONLY THE IGNORANT AND DIM WITTED EVEN SAY THE WORD IMPOSSIBLE
Steve
Wednesday, July 27, 2011 at 1:31 PMRead my first comment. I knew sooner or later, someone would pop up with the ‘flight’ excuse. No-one thought it was ever impossible, just difficult and required a better power source than was available at the time.
Indeed, look at birds. Flight via planes (read: aerofoils) embraces forces of air pressure, momentum etc. Time travel violates everything we’ve ever known, unlike everything else. You cannot teleport/travel in time. Get used to it.
Elijah
Wednesday, July 27, 2011 at 12:38 AMTypical scientists, by professing themselves wise they became as fools. Time travel is not only indeed possible and irrelevant to photons, it has been proven that it is possible according to the bible. My soul itself exists outside of time. With God ALL is possible and that includes time travel, bottom line. Don’t believe it? Well then you’re no greater than those who asked if God could provide a table of food in the wilderness. Jesus knows the future because he’s from the future. He is forevermore the same, existing in past present and future knowing all and being capable of doing all (including time travel). Think I’m crazy? Simply put, my faith is far greater than yours because you don’t hear the word of God. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. It feels good to know the truth in a world such as this which lies and believes in its own lies. Satan’s power is in his lies and Satan speaks through such scientists and anyone else who does not hold their thoughts captive to the truth of Christ.
EckyThump
Wednesday, July 27, 2011 at 8:06 AMPlease don’t knock on my door again! I do not wish to be converted, I don’t believe in the big magic dude in the sky, and most of all, I have seen not even one, empirical piece of evidence that your magician actually exists! Now don’t let the garden gate hit you in the arse when you leave,… Thank You!! #]
pete
Wednesday, July 27, 2011 at 2:08 AMSterling work. Light can’t travel faster than light. There’s a surprise. Next they will discover black isn’t white.
John G.
Wednesday, July 27, 2011 at 6:07 AMTime travel is possible! If you move a particle fast enough it can travel forward in time at a faster rate (Time Dilation). So, to clarify, what the researcher said is that travel BACK in time in a flat vacuum is not possible. There are many schemes that may overcome this limitation, wormholes, closed time loops, Tipler Cylinders, etc.
Search for Time Travel on Wikipedia, good article.
What it comes down to is that without a quantum theory of gravity we cannot determine with certainty whether or not such schemes are possible.
Steve
Wednesday, July 27, 2011 at 1:35 PMMass Dilation causes that particle you’re accelerating to rapidly increase in mass, which in turn GREATLY increases the energy needed to accelerate it (which approaches infinity). Even at 10% speed of light (well beyond what we think is even remotely feasible), there’s no source of energy great enough to push it further.