I saw a TV prog about a Physics prof in the States who is building a time
machine.
It uses Lasers and he is hoping to send particles into a kind of vortex back
in time. Does anybody know his name and how his experiments are going?He
said that when he switches it on he expects to receive particles send from
the future by himself.True or bunk?

Country Chiel

Country_Chiel wrote:
I saw a TV prog about a Physics prof in the States who is building a time
machine.

We've built many time machines on mountain tops around the world!

If we are sitting in a classroom separated by ten feet... you don't see
me as I am now, but as I was 10 ns ago. When you look at the Moon you
see it as it was more than a second ago. You see the Sun as it was eight
minutes ago. If the Sun blew up, we wouldn't know it for eight minutes.
And when we go out into the country side far away from city lights and
look at the faint smudge of light that is the Andromeda Galaxy, you don't
see that galaxy as it is now, but as it was 2.3 million years ago.

Astronomer Sandy Faber points out:

"These giant telescopes, they are the only true time machines
that human beings have and they are totally faithful. There's
nothing hokey about this. You look through a giant telescope, you
get a view of a very distant region of space, and it is as though
you were a historian and could put your eye to a telescope and
actually see Hannibal crossing the Alps and all those elephants
trotting along. We are actually seeing the Universe and the
things in it behaving as they did billions of years ago".

The deeper into space we peer, the farther back in time we
venture. This notion that we can study the history of the cosmos
is less than a century old.

Country_Chiel wrote:

I saw a TV prog about a Physics prof in the States who is building a time
machine.
It uses Lasers and he is hoping to send particles into a kind of vortex back
in time. Does anybody know his name and how his experiments are going?He
said that when he switches it on he expects to receive particles send from
the future by himself.True or bunk?

Bunk. At the very least it raised Hobb with conservation laws. And what
about altering the time line? Google grandfather paradox

Bob Kolker

On Mon, 13 Dec 2004 16:28:42 +1300, "Country_Chiel"
wrote:

I saw a TV prog about a Physics prof in the States who is building a time
machine.
Here's the lectu (on WGBH) A Brief History of Time Travel
http://forum.wgbh.org/wgbh/forum.php?lecture_id=1203

It uses Lasers and he is hoping to send particles into a kind of vortex back
in time. Does anybody know his name?

Ron Mallett http://www.physics.uconn.edu/~mallett/
http://www.phys.uconn.edu/faculty/mallett.html

See also:
http://temporology.bio.msu.ru/EREPORTS/mallett.pdf
http://www.wonderquest.com/TimeTravel.htm

If we ever plan to travel beyond a few close stars, we need a better
understanding of time. The problem is, the press distorts the nature
of the actual research and then the crank bashers on the news groups
blast the work as bunk. Ironically, this situation probably repels
serious researchers, attracts the cranks and leaves important issues
avoided for serious scientific investigation.

John Bailey
http://home.rochester.rr.com/jbxroads/mailto.html

If you don't want to google: Here is the grandfather paradox:

Imagine you invented a time machine. Than you travel back in time and kill
your own grandfather before your father was born. So you were never born. So
you are not able to invent the time machine and travel back in time. So
nobody can kill your grandfather. So your father is born and .....

Hope I remembered this little paradox the right way

Andreas


"robert j. kolker" wrote in message
...


Country_Chiel wrote:

I saw a TV prog about a Physics prof in the States who is building a
time
machine.
It uses Lasers and he is hoping to send particles into a kind of vortex
back
in time. Does anybody know his name and how his experiments are going?He
said that when he switches it on he expects to receive particles send
from
the future by himself.True or bunk?

Bunk. At the very least it raised Hobb with conservation laws. And what
about altering the time line? Google grandfather paradox

Bob Kolker

"Andreas Birnesser" wrote in message
...
If you don't want to google: Here is the grandfather paradox:

Imagine you invented a time machine. Than you travel back in time and kill
your own grandfather before your father was born. So you were never born.
So
you are not able to invent the time machine and travel back in time. So
nobody can kill your grandfather. So your father is born and .....

That's an old one. It can be solved by using the many worlds hypothesis -
similar to Quantum theory.

Country Chiel