Researchers successfully sent a simulated elementary particle back in time

Don't start investing in flux capacitors just yet, though.

Photo source: Geralt / Pixabay
  • The second law of thermodynamics states that order always moves to disorder, which we experience as an arrow of time.
  • Scientists used a quantum computer to show that time travel is theoretically possible by reverting a simulated particle from an entropic to a more orderly state.
  • While Einstein's general theory of relativity permits time travel, the means to achieve it remain improbable in nature.
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Surprising Science

10 Golden Age science fiction novels

Transport yourself to other worlds and states of mind.

Stranger in a Strange Land Cover
  • The early 20th century saw explosive growth for the science fiction genre.
  • A wide range of these books would go on to become classics.
  • These great works explore the strange, zany and absurd profundities of our existence.
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Culture & Religion

The government’s secret UFO reading list is revealed. Wow.

FOIA release sheds light on the DOD's own struggle to understand UFOs.

(Vladi333/SONY/Big Think)
  • A just-unclassified Department of Defense reading list on UFOs is stunning.
  • The DOD is wondering if the truth lies in some of the most far-out theories.
  • Science fiction has nothing on science fact.
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Surprising Science

How will we travel to another star?

Proxima Centauri, our closest star, is more than 4 light years away. Reaching it under 10,000 years will be challenging; reaching it with living humans will be even harder.

NASA
  • Eventually, humanity will want to travel to a new solar system to propagate the human race, explore, and maybe find signs of alien life.
  • But our closest neighbor, Proxima Centauri, is so far away that current methods could take tens of thousands of years.
  • How will we surmount this incredible distance and the other challenges associated with interstellar travel?
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Technology & Innovation

​In 1983, Isaac Asimov predicted the world of 2019. Here's what he got right (and wrong).

Some of them were surprisingly astute.

Image source: SketchPort
  • In 1983, the Toronto Star asked science fiction writer Isaac Asimov to predict what the world would be like in 2019.
  • His predictions about computerization were mostly accurate, though some of his forecasts about education and space utilization were overly optimistic.
  • Asimov's predictions highlight just how difficult it is to predict the future of technology.
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Technology & Innovation