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Time Travel reVisited

GadgetManiac — Fri, 17 Feb 2006 12:37:00 +0000

Talk of time travel is back, and, for good this time … perhaps. The eminently qualified Michio Kaku surveys the paradox-fraught field of temporal excursions in a new article entitled “The Physics of Time Travel – Real or Fable?” just published in Quantum Biocommunication.

Kaku states that time travel is at least theoretically possible, as evidenced by a solution to Einstein’s equations put forth by Kurt Goedel, whose work portrays time as a kind of fluid that circulates at varying speeds around and about the universe. And recent developments in the field of quantum gravity have encouraged Kaku enough to imply that the possibilty of time travel is a definite maybe.

The remainder of the article postulates that causality violation can be avoided by means of spinning off a parallel universe just when you happen to take some untoward action, such as killing off your biological grandfather. And then there’s the small problem of actually getting to a different time, which the author suggests can accomplished by stepping through a wormhole caused by a rapidly spinning ring of neutrons created by a rotating black hole [.. good luck in finding a traversable wormhole..]

The Compleat Time Traveller it’s not, but the opening chapters of that book seem to be taking shape.

The Physics of Time Travel – Real or Fable? – Quantum Biocommunication, February 16th, 2006

Schrodinger’s Cat

GadgetManiac — Tue, 27 Dec 2005 20:31:00 +0000

Today’s New York Times has a new article about quantum mechanics, and the infamous Schrodinger’s Cat, and how the cat is both dead and alive at the same time and all that…

The author does a good job of explaining an obtuse topic & concludes by saying that at a quantum level, the available evidence suggests that the universe is truly random, and therefore basically unpredictable. (Einstein must be spinning).

Despite the author’s manifold skills, I still don’t understand any of that stuff … I’m convinced that there are some hidden variables out there somewhere.

The piece has some nice cat pix tho …
… and I’m assuming that no cats were harmed in the publishing of this article.

Quantum Trickery: Testing Einstein’s Strangest Theory – NYT, December 27, 2005

Relaxing to Three Dimensions

GadgetManiac — Wed, 12 Oct 2005 21:57:00 +0000

Relaxing to Three Dimensions is the curious title of a new article that sits squarely at the intersection of physics and philosophy. Just published in the respected journal Physical Review Letters, Rt3D addresses that hoary question of why things are the way they are, dimensionally-speaking. The article purports to demonstrate why this universe of ours leans towards the numbers three and seven as its preferred number of spatial dimensions. Basically the authors are saying that those other dimensions were much more likely to annihilate themselves via brane-antibrane collisions during the course of the universe’s evolution. We’re living on a 3-brane world, but perhaps trapped in one of many 7-branes populating the universe. The good news is that the chances of our bumping into an anti-3-brane and consequently being wiped out, are low, but not zero…at least according to the authors.

Relaxing to Three Dimensions - by Andreas Karch – University of Washington & Lisa Randall – Harvard University, August 31, 2005