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]