U. Connecticut professor works on time machine

U-WIRE ^ | 9-28-2001 | Andrew Chemistruck & Courtney Hickson

[Cagey]

STORRS, Conn. -- A University of Connecticut theoretical physics professor is working on the key to traveling back in time. According to Ronald Mallett, the solution is simpler than traveling through a rotating black hole or an unstable wormhole.

"I have been focused on creating a time machine ever since I was 10 years old, when my father died from a heart attack at the age of 33," Mallett said. "Ever since then, it has been my goal to construct a time machine to go back and warn my father of what is about to happen to him."

Mallett's theory uses laser light that is forced to circulate in one continuous loop by using mirrors or fiber optics. In the center a single spinning particle would be placed, such as a neutron. The particle would be dragged around in empty space and moving it away from the center could send it into the past.

According to Mallett, the device could create an effect that would be similar to stirring cream into a cup of coffee. The disturbance created in the coffee by stirring is similar to the effects created by Mallett's laser device.

"The theory is that when the machine is turned on and runs for a day, a person can step into the machine and return to the day before," Mallett said. "Hence, a person can travel back from the future to any time in the past, but not past before the time machine was turned on."

"[Mallett's theory] is perfectly consistent [with Einstein's Theory of General Relativity], but if someone will be able to do it experimentally is another thing. It could be too hard to do. It could only work in physics or chemistry labs, but not on a life-size level, which is often the case," David Markowitz, a physics professor, said.

"The bottom line is that Mallett has found an exact solution to Einstein's General Theory of Relativity. He and others are trying to understand the consequences of his theory and I am trying to understand it myself," Winthrop Smith, a physics professor, said.

"It is an exciting theoretical development, but I am skeptical about any practical developments in the short run, but this does not mean that we should not work on it," Smith said.

Smith said it could be practical if someone comes up with a clever idea to modify the current design to make it cheaper to develop for experimentation.

According to William Stwalley, the head of the physics department, members of the Ultracold research group have been able to slow light down to the speed of a bike, which could make development of a Mallett device more practical than before.

"No experiments are definitely planned for this year, but I would not be surprised that there would be one by the end of the year," Stwalley said.

Under the currently defined rules of the universe, Mallett cannot travel back in time to save his father. He will continue to search for a way to travel through time, and the physics staff and students at UConn will be controlling the research for this new theory.

"I find all this new work quite exciting," Mallet said. "Being able to alter the past is a powerful tool and there are severe moral implications related to changing the past. I wonder if the people of the future will use time travel to alter their past, our present."

[imperator2]

UCONN has become a home for fruit cakes . First a guy who is developing a non allergenic cat, and now this.

[surfer]

maybe they have that is why they get away with some of these things...

[surfer]

How can you be two places at once when your not anywhere at all?

Let's see who remembers this one!

[techcor]

Nice thought. Can I get tomorrows stock prices today? Seriously though, time travel is impossible.

The only reason that the theories say it is possible is because they make the mistake of using formulas that say traveling faster than the speed of light is impossible, then they say "but if you do travel faster than the speed of light, you can travel back in time".

Silly people. Time propegates at the same rate as the fastest possible medium available (which appears to be light at this point). If something travels faster than light, then time can propigate at that rate.

[techcor]

Fire Sign Theatre with Nick Danger?

[ladyneutron]

Actually, I posted my reply here three months from now.

[doug from upland]

I just forwarded your message to Suzy's current husband.

[dead]

Just to save time and effort, he should come back from the future and tell himself how he did it.

[JenB]

Me too! Although a more practical way to go to the future might be coldsleep, if that ever gets perfected. Heinlein's Door into Summer is an excellent time travel/cold sleep/future novel. Unfortunately he was a little off in his predictions. (Unfortunate because I want some of those robots so I never have to scrub a floor again!)

[Stavka2]

If you could do this, then nothing would be stable...we'd have people tinkering with time constantly...of course we'd never know it since our time stream would just adjust and so would all of our experiences leading up to this. Certain unforseen events would easily mushroom out of proportions and could and would cause time paradoxes and near eternal loops. Watch any movie like Terminator 2 and you can see the simple but overlooked time paradoxes. The Back To the Future series actually (though it was a comedy) faced realistically the volitility of such a thing. Nothing would be stable and eventually the very invention of time travel would be destroyed...until someone else in the new altered historical time line reinvented it and everything would start all over again....somethings are best left uncreated.

[P8riot]

There was a young lady named bright

Who travelled much faster than light

She left one day

In the relative way

And returned on the previous night

[Jhensy]

An appropriate Steven Wright-ism:

"I went to a restaurant that served 'Breakfast Anytime'. So I ordered French Toast during the Renaissance."

[Stavka2]

If he goes back in time and gets killed, it won't matter since he already invented it. If he goes back and gets his younger self killed or one of his ancestors before that ancestor can reproduce...he'll cease to exist instantly. Love those paradoxes.

[oldsalt]

I wonder if the people of the future will use time travel to alter their past, our present."

Maybe they already have!

[Stavka2]

Yes, but wouldn't that for knowledge then if acted upon (and how could it not be) instantly change the outcome or at least the steps of the future leading up to it. Any gained knowledge from the future that is then acted upon changes the very future that sent it to it in the first place.

[P8riot]

In the words of Vinnie Barbarino,

"I'm sooooooooooooo confused!!!!!!"

[Stavka2]

But how would you know anything was messed with? If it happened yesterday, today would be directly based upon what happened to yesterday and you'd be in a seperate time stream with no preconcieved knowledge of the original time stream...since in your reality it no longer happened. That's our problem, we are aware only in 3 D....the physicist theory called String Theory (or Thread Theory) basically tries to explain everything through one scientific super formula, based on a 4 D...string perception.

[Stavka2]

In the 1920's physicists made public statements that nuclear power was impossible that the amount of energy required to split the atom was far more then that that was gained from the splitting...thus no practicle applications would EVER arise....guess what.

[cinFLA]

In the 1920's physicists made public statements that nuclear power was impossible

Which ones?

[Stavka2]

I think it has something to do with slowing the movement of particles. For example, absolute zero is where gases like oxygen solidfy because all atomic movement, like electron spinning and quantum tunneling cease. Long before that, Oxygen will begin to flow like water. Weird stuff. This can also be caused by extreme pressures and magnetic fields...such as what a black hole exherts upon all photon particles (which have negligable mass...if I remember by advanced physics classes correctly).