Time Travel

One of the things that has always irritated me about the concept of time travel is the idea that you could go back in time and alter the future. Back to Future is based on this principle, as are a good number of Star Trek episodes, as well as the entire Terminator franchise (movies and the TV series). I have always liked the idea of time travel, but the notion that you could somehow prevent your own birth perplexes me. I mean, if that were true, then you would never have been born in the first place. Surely you see what I mean.

My favorite comment on time travel is from Stephen Hawking, who said:

"So it might seem possible, that as we advance in science and technology, we might be able to construct a wormhole, or warp space and time in some other way, so as to be able to travel into our past. If this were the case, it would raise a whole host of questions and problems. One of these is, if sometime in the future, we learn to travel in time, why hasn't someone come back from the future, to tell us how to do it."

That's a damn good question, Mr. Hawking. He also notes that we have not been "over run by tourists from the future." Imagine meeting your great great great grandchildren. That would be screwed up. So, Hawking has already confirmed my belief that we cannot travel through time.

But, a new study argues that, if time travel does become possible, there will be certain constants that cannot be changed. So, as much as I'd love to travel back in time and prevent the invention of leaf blowers and stickers on fruits and vegetables, the new model for time travel suggests that this is not possible.

Before we talk about this new idea, I feel that I should point out that this so-called new model was my idea all along, but since I am not a theoretical physicist (well, not in the conventional sense), I could not attract any attention to it and no one would publish my idea because I could not support it with proper mathematical formulae.

Anyway, on to the "new" model:

"Researchers speculate that time travel can occur within a kind of feedback loop where backwards movement is possible, but only in a way that is 'complementary' to the present.

In other words, you can pop back in time and have a look around, but you cannot do anything that will alter the present you left behind."

I still don't believe we will ever be able to travel through time, but this model makes sense to me. So, take that Star Trek, and your stupid Temporal Prime Directive.

Clone this! and a Giant Rodent

Would you eat cloned meat or drink milk from a cloned animal?

I would not, but the FDA thinks it's OK. They see absolutely no difference between conventionally- reproduced animals and those made from ear cells. What's worse is that the FDA will not require that cloned products be labelled, just like genetically-modified foods. I think this is wrong. All of this means that if you want to avoid Frankenfoods, you have to stick with organic products. I am having fond memories of when food was food.

If that is depressing to you, then this should make you smile. The fossilized skull of a one ton rodent has been found in Uruguay. It was as large as a bull. It has been named Josephoartigasia monesi, or freakin' big rodent!

Messenger

OK, so I can't believe that no one had anything to say yesterday about my point that Messenger (MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging) arrived at Mercury yesterday. It has been 33 years since Mariner 10 arrived there on March 29, 1974. Until Messenger's arrival, it was the only spacecraft to have made the voyage. Messenger will make three flybys, and then be parked in orbit on March 18, 2011. In 2013, the European Space Agency will launch a mission to Mercury, due to arrive in 2019.

Oh, well, I guess no one is interested in this after all :-(