Physics Professor Confident His Time Machine Will Work

Ananova ^ | 4-5-2002

[blam]

Physics professor confident his time machine will work

A physics professor says he is building a time machine that will transport things to the future or the past.

Ronald Mallett says his machine could transport anything from an atom to a person.

The University of Connecticut professor hopes to have a working model and start experiments this autumn.

He told the Boston Globe he's basing his work on Einstein's theory of relativity.

He says the project is serious and added: "I'm not a nut."

He told the paper: "I would think I was a crackpot, too, if there weren't other colleagues I knew who were working on it. This isn't Ron Mallett's theory of matter - it's Einstein's theory of relativity. I'm not pulling things out of the known laws of physics."

The professor and his colleagues plan to build a machine to test whether it's possible to transport a subatomic particle through time using a ring of light.

He hopes the energy from a rotating laser beam may warp the space inside the ring of the light so gravity forces the neutron to rotate sideways. With more energy, he thinks it's possible a second neutron would appear. This second particle would be the first one visiting itself from the future.

He admits sending a human through time may need more energy than scientists know how to harness currently, but he sees it as just ''an engineering problem.''

Prof Mallett's boss, William Stwalley, chairman of the university's physics department, said: "His ideas certainly have merit. I think some of his ideas are very interesting and they would make nice tests of general relativity."

Story filed: 16:02 Friday 5th April 2002

[blam]

"Maybe some are under the Antarctic ice. The earth is pockmarked with impact craters; this was not known until recent satellite photos. Dinosaurs were unknown until the 19th century. Schliemann was right about Troy and Mycenae. I never bought that bit about Santorini's being Atlantis. Plato said it was in the Atlantic."

It's more exciting than all that you have written.

[blam]

Let me toss out a little challenge to you. Here goes: Atlantis is reputed to have concentric waterways around it. What was the purpose of the waterways? (Now, toss out the most obvious, defense...and give me you best shot). What other purpose might they have had?

[RightWhale]

concentric waterways

The same or similar images turn up over and over in various Gnostic apocalyptic myths. Find the origin of those, and you have Atlantis.

[blam]

"The same or similar images turn up over and over in various Gnostic apocalyptic myths. Find the origin of those, and you have Atlantis."

Thanks. I'm thinking the design had a functional purpose. (..other than defense or rituals)

[Revolting cat!]

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm... time machine.

Imagine the mischief you could cause going back in time. You could manipulate the Beatles to break up before they made it big, so that your favourite band Freddie and the Dreamers would have made it instead. Or you could've persuaded the guy who invented the wheel that a square had a more promising future, then came back and shorted Ford stock. Or persuaded the Founding Fathers to include a clause in the Constitution stating that no one named 'Clinton' could become POTUS! Shall I go on?

[lds23]

Not to be a spoilsport, but if someone had gone back in time, wouldn't we know it by now?

[Savage Beast]

Yes, I remember Plato's description of the concentric waterways, though it has been a long time since I read this. And I remember his description of how thick with mud the ocean was after the final sinking, so thick that the exit from the Mediterranean into the Atlantic was impenetrable, for years as I recall. And he was clear that Atlantis was the direct precursor of Egyptian civilization, which certainly seems unlikely to have burst forth in full flower 3,000 years B.C. with no period of ascendancy. And he referenced a source for all his claims, gave the names and the line of communication. And he said, as I recall, that much of Greek mythology, including that about the Titans, was in fact Atlantean history. But what could have been the purpose of the concentric waterways? I'm thinking... ...

[blam]

"so thick that the exit from the Mediterranean into the Atlantic "

Ah ha! Nothing was said about the mud being in either the Mediterranean or the Atlantic, only that the waterways were impassable from the mud.. Also, I believe that Solon was told by the Egyptian high priests that this all occurred 9,000 years before their time.

[Savage Beast]

Perhaps he did say that the waterways were impassable and not specify which waterways. It's been a long time. It's interesting that the water-weathering of the Sphinx dates it to about 10,000 B.C., coinciding approximately with Plato's account. I'm still thinking...

[blam]

"I never bought that bit about Santorini's being Atlantis.

Akatori/Thera/Santorini blew in 1628BC. IMO this incident provided the pyrotectics for the Exodus, the plume could be seen from the Nile Valley.('staff by day, torch by night')

"It's interesting that the water-weathering of the Sphinx dates it to about 10,000 B.C., coinciding approximately with Plato's account."

Think the ending of the Ice Age, lots of water and a dramatically changing climate.

[Hawkeye's Girl]

I'd go back in time to the 70s and be a guest star on some sitcom that I knew would still be in reruns in the year 2002, then come back here and freak people out when they see me in the episode :D

[blam]

"I'd go back in time to the 70s and be a guest star on some sitcom that I knew would still be in reruns in the year 2002, then come back here and freak people out when they see me in the episode :D"

Young lady, that would be a waste of time for something as expensive and important as a time machine. You go directly to your room and don't come out till you can be more serious!

[Savage Beast]

Well, as the ice age ended, the climate became warmer and the sea level rose. The concentric waterways could have been designed to drain the land, and the rising ocean could have engulfed the continent and it appear that Atlantis sank. However, one would expect a very large shallow area just beneath the surface of the ocean. I was thinking that maybe the concentric waterways formed a cooling system for a mega-nuclear reactor or something like that. Maybe when the earthquake occurred, they had a mega-meltdown.

[blam]

How about locks, water-locks for ships? Ship transit from one water level to another?

[Savage Beast]

Locks for ships. Excellent idea. This is all very interesting, and, like Schliemann's discoveries, it will all no doubt come to light--sooner, I hope, rather than later.

[Axenolith]

What other purpose might they have had?

Concentric dikes against an ever slowly rising sea...?

[blam]

"Concentric dikes against an ever slowly rising sea...?"

...possibly or a sinking land mass. (or both)