Could all our blunders be reversed, our failings eliminated? Perhaps so, if anIsraeli scientist's research is to be believed. With the help of Prof. Amos Ori,we might just be able to go back and stop the screw-ups from happening in thefirst place.Ori, a physicist from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, hascome up with what he says are practical solutions to overcome the hindrances thatexperts have long regarded as stopping us from traveling back in time.In a paper published in the latest issue of the Physical Review journal, thescientist offers a theoretical model, based on mathematical equations describingconditions that, if established, could help lead to the development of a timemachine of sorts. But rather than building an actual device, Ori explains that"the machine is space-time itself."Time travel research is based on bending space-time so far that the time linesactually warp back on themselves to form a loop."We know that bending does happen all the time, but we want the bending to bestrong enough and to take a special form where the lines of time make closedloops," explains Ori. "We are trying to find out if it is possible to manipulatespace-time to develop in such a way."While the possibility of time travel has never been ruled out, scientists haveidentified a number of physical challenges, including a perceived need for someform of exotic matter to create the necessary warp and get the wheels of time toturn back. Such matter is predicted by the quantum field theory to exist, althoughonly in quantities too small for the construction of an actual time machine.But Ori puts forth a different approach eliminating the need for exotic matter."If the proper initial conditions were achieved, the time machine would evolve onits own without any further intervention," he asserts. "It can be likened toshooting a ship with a cannon. Once the cannon is aimed properly and fired, thecannonball hits the ship on its own, driven solely by the laws of physics. Themachine is space time itself. If we were to create an area with a warp like thisin space that would enable time lines to close on themselves, it might enablefuture generations to return to visit our time."But don't pack your bags and get ready to go dinosaur-hunting yet. "We, however,"he cautions, "could not return to previous ages because our predecessors did notcreate this infrastructure for us."The details of Ori's research are so complicated as to be baffling: In a 2004paper, Ori outlined a set of conditions that would allow for the creation of atime loop without the need for exotic matter. According to that theory, the timeloop would form as a donut-shaped vacuum, inside which time would curve back onitself, so that a person traveling around the loop might be able to go furtherback in time with each lap. A sphere containing a non-exotic - but unidentified -matter would in turn surround the loop.But Ori's latest work eliminates the need even for that unidentified matter. Hisnew calculations show that the envelope can in fact be packed with dust, a simplemodeling of which is used regularly in theoretical physics, while still allowingfor the evolution of a time machine.Although Ori is certainly not alone in theorizing on time travel - previoustheories are well-grounded in Einstein's General Relativity theory - he, like many
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