(Image source: Geek.com)
BY JING ZHAO AND STEVEN SPARKMAN
You're watching multisource science news analysis from Newsy
A new study is upsetting science fiction fans. It turns out imagination -- is no match for the laws of physics. MSNBC explains.
“So much for Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure. The party’s over for time travel. Hong Kong physicists say they’ve proved it’s impossible. I mean, it’s not just that we don’t have the technology right now. It’s that the physical laws of the universe prohibit it.
The news generated a lot of playful outrage. Like a writer for International Business Times who wrote:
“Give us Back to the Future fans a minute. We are going to silently weep...”
And a writer for Time, who wrote:
“...the word ‘Scientists’ is now synonymous with ‘Dream Killers.’”
The argument goes back to Einstein, who said the speed of light is the max speed of moving things in the universe. A writer for Geek.com explains how for the past decade scientists thought they’d found a way to break the law.
“...for the past 10 years it has been thought optical pulses may be able to travel faster than light under specific circumstances. This is called superluminal. However, it was later proved wrong, but left scientists with questions about how fast a photon could travel as it would be the one particle that could potentially break the speed of light barrier.”
Well, the time for questions is over. These scientists put it to the test. A writer for Social Barrel explains what they were looking for.
“The main argument of the study was seeing if a single photon, the stuff which makes up light, can travel faster than the speed of light. … If a single photon would have travelled faster than the speed of light ... time travel would have been possible since you have a single photon or effect, which can come before its source or cause.”
This was the first time scientists measured the speed of a single photon and they found -- it obeys the law. Cause always comes before effect, and you can’t rewind time. Bummer. But a writer for Gizmodo is holding on to his sci-fi dreams.
“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!”
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