- Email: [email protected]
Back to my future
Turning point
BACK TO MY FUTURE
■
Building a time machine is not really the kind of goal even a frontier physicist like Ronald L. Mallett likes to talk about in public – still less his real motivation
for my interest in building a time machine, which I feared would not be taken seriously. Black holes, collapsed stars that trap light, also have a profound influence on time: getting close enough to one can cause time to nearly come to a halt. As dangerous as black holes may be for the unwary space traveller, they were a safe way for me to study the influence of gravity on time. My route through academia was waylaid by a stint as an industrial research scientist working on lasers. Ironically, this unexpected detour was
“And if my time machine worked, just what would I say to my dad?”
PHOTOLIBRARY.COM
I remember the early years of my childhood as a happy time spent in the larger-than-life presence of my father. Dad was a television repairman who worked and played equally hard. But he died abruptly of a massive heart attack at 33 when I was only 10 years old. His death left me depressed and in utter despair. Fortunately, among the many gifts my father bestowed on me was a passion for reading, and it was in books that I found some measure of solace. A little more than a year after Dad’s death, one book in particular became the turning point in my life: The Time Machine by H. G. Wells. I was consumed by the possibility that I might be able to build a time machine that would allow me to travel to the past and see my father again. This time I would warn him that his bad habits would kill him – and soon. The possibility of time travel became more real in my mind when, a few years later, I came across a popular book about the work of Albert Einstein. Einstein, said the book, was able to show that time is not unchanging but can be altered: in fact, if you move a clock fast enough, time slows down! This gave me hope that one day I might actually be able to build a time machine. I learned, too, that Einstein was a physicist. There was no other route: I would have to take science and learn higher mathematics to understand his work and embark on my own journey. Daily life was a constant struggle for the family after my father’s death. I was the oldest of four children my mother had to provide for on her own. Somehow her inner strength kept the
family together and allowed us to survive. My dream of a time machine remained a secret and after high school I enlisted in the US air force to get money for college. Studying on my own while I was in the military, I learned that Einstein had developed two theories of relativity. His special theory of relativity, which has to do with the speed of light, allows the possibility of time travel into the future. This form of time travel had already been
demonstrated experimentally. His other theory, the general theory of relativity, has to do with gravity and allows for the possibility of time travel into the past. When I was discharged from the air force, I set to work and eventually won my PhD in physics from Penn State University. At college, I researched cosmology, which allowed me to study the structure and evolution of the universe as well as the theory of black holes. These subjects provided cover
to provide the key to my breakthrough in time travel research. After much painstaking work, I developed the theories (based on Einstein’s general relativity) that serve as the foundation for building a time machine to the past, a time machine that would use circulating laser beams. So far no one has proved me wrong. But I do wonder: what would Einstein make of my theories if he could come back for an hour? And if my machine worked, just what would I say to my dad? ●
Based on Time Traveler: A scientist’s personal mission to make time travel a reality by Ronald L. Mallett with Bruce Henderson, Thunder’s Mouth Press, $24.95, ISBN 1560258691
Enigma Magic circle
1
No. 1417 Bob Walker JOE placed 10 numbered counters in a circle (as shown) and asked Penny to pick a number. Then he asked her to count clockwise that number of counters to find a new counter. For example, if she picked 7 the new counter would be 1. Repeating the www.newscientist.com
061111_Op_Turning_time.indd 55
0
2
8
7
4
5 6
9
3
process with the number on each new counter she would finish up at zero. But if she picked one particular number first she would reach zero via all the other counters. Penny found that leaving some of the counters in place, including 0, 1 and 2, there was another arrangement of the counters that had this same property if she started at the same number. Beginning with zero, what was the clockwise order of Penny’s numbers?
£15 will be awarded to the sender of the first correct answer opened on Wednesday 13 December. The Editor’s decision is final. Send entries to Enigma 1417, New Scientist, 84 Theobald’s Road, London WC1X 8NS, or to [email protected] (with your postal address). The winner of Enigma 1411 is Paul King of Wainuiomata, New Zealand. Answer to 1411 Group stages 1a 4; 1b 2; 2a 12; 2b 7 11 November 2006 | NewScientist | 55
3/11/06 5:18:45 pm
BACK TO MY FUTURE
■
Building a time machine is not really the kind of goal even a frontier physicist like Ronald L. Mallett likes to talk about in public – still less his real motivation
for my interest in building a time machine, which I feared would not be taken seriously. Black holes, collapsed stars that trap light, also have a profound influence on time: getting close enough to one can cause time to nearly come to a halt. As dangerous as black holes may be for the unwary space traveller, they were a safe way for me to study the influence of gravity on time. My route through academia was waylaid by a stint as an industrial research scientist working on lasers. Ironically, this unexpected detour was
“And if my time machine worked, just what would I say to my dad?”
PHOTOLIBRARY.COM
I remember the early years of my childhood as a happy time spent in the larger-than-life presence of my father. Dad was a television repairman who worked and played equally hard. But he died abruptly of a massive heart attack at 33 when I was only 10 years old. His death left me depressed and in utter despair. Fortunately, among the many gifts my father bestowed on me was a passion for reading, and it was in books that I found some measure of solace. A little more than a year after Dad’s death, one book in particular became the turning point in my life: The Time Machine by H. G. Wells. I was consumed by the possibility that I might be able to build a time machine that would allow me to travel to the past and see my father again. This time I would warn him that his bad habits would kill him – and soon. The possibility of time travel became more real in my mind when, a few years later, I came across a popular book about the work of Albert Einstein. Einstein, said the book, was able to show that time is not unchanging but can be altered: in fact, if you move a clock fast enough, time slows down! This gave me hope that one day I might actually be able to build a time machine. I learned, too, that Einstein was a physicist. There was no other route: I would have to take science and learn higher mathematics to understand his work and embark on my own journey. Daily life was a constant struggle for the family after my father’s death. I was the oldest of four children my mother had to provide for on her own. Somehow her inner strength kept the
family together and allowed us to survive. My dream of a time machine remained a secret and after high school I enlisted in the US air force to get money for college. Studying on my own while I was in the military, I learned that Einstein had developed two theories of relativity. His special theory of relativity, which has to do with the speed of light, allows the possibility of time travel into the future. This form of time travel had already been
demonstrated experimentally. His other theory, the general theory of relativity, has to do with gravity and allows for the possibility of time travel into the past. When I was discharged from the air force, I set to work and eventually won my PhD in physics from Penn State University. At college, I researched cosmology, which allowed me to study the structure and evolution of the universe as well as the theory of black holes. These subjects provided cover
to provide the key to my breakthrough in time travel research. After much painstaking work, I developed the theories (based on Einstein’s general relativity) that serve as the foundation for building a time machine to the past, a time machine that would use circulating laser beams. So far no one has proved me wrong. But I do wonder: what would Einstein make of my theories if he could come back for an hour? And if my machine worked, just what would I say to my dad? ●
Based on Time Traveler: A scientist’s personal mission to make time travel a reality by Ronald L. Mallett with Bruce Henderson, Thunder’s Mouth Press, $24.95, ISBN 1560258691
Enigma Magic circle
1
No. 1417 Bob Walker JOE placed 10 numbered counters in a circle (as shown) and asked Penny to pick a number. Then he asked her to count clockwise that number of counters to find a new counter. For example, if she picked 7 the new counter would be 1. Repeating the www.newscientist.com
061111_Op_Turning_time.indd 55
0
2
8
7
4
5 6
9
3
process with the number on each new counter she would finish up at zero. But if she picked one particular number first she would reach zero via all the other counters. Penny found that leaving some of the counters in place, including 0, 1 and 2, there was another arrangement of the counters that had this same property if she started at the same number. Beginning with zero, what was the clockwise order of Penny’s numbers?
£15 will be awarded to the sender of the first correct answer opened on Wednesday 13 December. The Editor’s decision is final. Send entries to Enigma 1417, New Scientist, 84 Theobald’s Road, London WC1X 8NS, or to [email protected] (with your postal address). The winner of Enigma 1411 is Paul King of Wainuiomata, New Zealand. Answer to 1411 Group stages 1a 4; 1b 2; 2a 12; 2b 7 11 November 2006 | NewScientist | 55
3/11/06 5:18:45 pm