"Time Travel Impossible!" Say Hong Kong scientists

Hong Kong physicists say they have proved that a single photon obeys Einstein's theory that nothing can travel faster than the speed of light -- demonstrating that outside science fiction, time travel is impossible.
The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology research team led by Du Shengwang said they had proved that a single photon, or unit of light, "obeys the traffic law of the universe".
"Einstein claimed that the speed of light was the traffic law of the universe or in simple language, nothing can travel faster than light," the university said on its website.
"Professor Du's study demonstrates that a single photon, the fundamental quanta of light, also obeys the traffic law of the universe just like classical EM (electromagnetic) waves."
The possibility of time travel was raised 10 years ago when scientists discovered superluminal -- or faster-than-light -- propagation of optical pulses in some specific medium, the team said.
It was later found to be a visual effect, but researchers thought it might still be possible for a single photon to exceed light speed.
Du, however, believed Einstein was right and determined to end the debate by measuring the ultimate speed of a single photon, which had not been done before.
"The study, which showed that single photons also obey the speed limit c, confirms Einstein's causality; that is, an effect cannot occur before its cause," the university said.
"By showing that single photons cannot travel faster than the speed of light, our results bring a closure to the debate on the true speed of information carried by a single photon," said Du, assistant professor of physics.
"Our findings will also likely have potential applications by giving scientists a better picture on the transmission of quantum information."
The team's study was published in the US peer-reviewed scientific journal Physical Review Letters.

So "Back To The Future", "The Time Machine" "Dr. Who" and "Star Trek" are up the creek without a paddle!

New Kaisen 6 Promo!

Kaisen! The Best Con in PR!

Avatar - The new James Cameron film!

This is the trailer for the new sci-fi / fantasy film Avatar, directed by "Titanic" director James Cameron.




It looks interesting!

It's a fully 3-D movie. It opens December 18 worldwide

Trailer courtesy of Apple Trailers and 20th Century Fox

Scientists create "Transparent Aluminum"...for a few short seconds!

"How we know he did'nt invent the darn thing?" Retorted Mr. Scott to Dr. McCoy in a scene from "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home" Well, guess what? It was invented! We have Transparent Aluminum!

Scientists claim to have created a form of aluminum that's nearly transparent to extreme ultraviolet radiation and which is a new state of matter.

It's an idea straight out of science fiction, featured in the movie "Star Trek IV."

The work is detailed in the journal Nature Physics.

The normal states of matter are solid, liquid and gas, and a fourth state, called plasma, is a superheated gas considered more exotic. Other experiments have created strange states of matter for brief periods. This one, too, existed only briefly.

To create the new, even more exotic stuff, a short pulse from a laser "knocked out" a core electron from every aluminum atom in a sample without disrupting the metal's crystalline structure, the researchers explain.

''What we have created is a completely new state of matter nobody has seen before," said professor Justin Wark of Oxford University's Department of Physics.

"Transparent aluminum is just the start," Wark said. "The physical properties of the matter we are creating are relevant to the conditions inside large planets, and we also hope that by studying it we can gain a greater understanding of what is going on during the creation of 'miniature stars' created by high-power laser implosions, which may one day allow the power of nuclear fusion to be harnessed here on Earth."

Fusion is a dream of scientists who would create cheap and plentiful power by fusing atoms together, as opposed to nuclear fission that generates electricity today.

The discovery was made possible with a high-powered synchrotron radiation generator called the FLASH laser, based in Hamburg, Germany. It produces extremely brief pulses of soft X-ray light, each of which is more powerful than the output of a power plant that provides electricity to a whole city.

The Oxford team, along with their international colleagues, focused all this power down into a spot with a diameter less than a twentieth of the width of a human hair. At such high intensities the aluminum turned transparent.

While the invisible effect lasted for only an extremely brief period - an estimated 40 femtoseconds - it demonstrates that such an exotic state of matter can be created using very high power X-ray sources.

"What is particularly remarkable about our experiment is that we have turned ordinary aluminum into this exotic new material in a single step by using this very powerful laser," Wark said. "For a brief period the sample looks and behaves in every way like a new form of matter. In certain respects, the way it reacts is as though we had changed every aluminum atom into silicon: it's almost as surprising as finding that you can turn lead into gold with light."

As a friend of mine used to say..."Star Trek is real! It just has not happened yet."
we used to tease him. Humm...maybe he's right.

Phillip José Farmer 1918-2009

Famed science fiction and fantasy writer Phillip José Farmer, known for his Riverworld and World of Tiers stories, passed away peacefully in his sleep this morning in Peoria, Illinois. He was 91 years old.

A multiple Hugo and Nebula award recipient, He was well known for his inventive stories in which religion, sex, life, death, afterlife, historical figures and pulp characters were analyzed, dissected and even satirized.

He will be missed by all of us Science Fiction fans everywhere. Real fans. The ones that read novels. Real Sci-Fi and fantasy novels!

Forrest J. Ackerman 1916-2008

We received word that long time Sci-Fi legend Forrest J. Ackerman has passed away.

Here's the story.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Forrest Ackerman, a writer and editor who coined the term "Sci-Fi" and helped inspire the likes of author Ray Bradbury and film maker George Lucas, has died. He was 92.
Ackerman died of heart failure on Thursday at his home in Los Angeles, said Kevin Burns, president of Prometheus Entertainment and a trustee of his estate.
He is widely credited with coining the term Sci-Fi in 1954. Science fiction had been around as a genre for years before, but Ackerman was a big promoter of it.
"He was really considered the godfather, or what I call the Pied Piper of science fiction and horror," Burns said on Friday.
Ackerman encouraged Bradbury, who went on to write classics such as "The Martian Chronicles" and "Fahrenheit 451," early on in the author's writing career.
Ackerman edited the magazine Famous Monsters of Filmland, which was launched in 1958 and lasted more than 20 years.
And he filled his eight-bedroom Los Angeles home with tens of thousands of science fiction books and props from Sci-Fi and horror movies. The house became a repository for fans of the those genres, who often visited for tours on Saturdays.
Lucas, the film maker behind the "Star Wars" franchise, said in a statement that Ackerman "never stopped believing in the magic of the movies and the possibilities presented by science fiction."
Ackerman died with no surviving family members.

It has to be pointed out that Forrest was also the first person to dress up as a character to a Sci-Fi gathering in LA in 1935. So he was the first "cosplayer" in the world.

The world is a sadder place today.

Here it is! The new Kaisen 4 Promo!

Made by yours truly, this is the promo for the best Sci Fi and anime convention in PR. Go there on Oct. 12 at 9am on Mario Jimenez Coliseum in Guaynabo.

Enjoy the promo!