Another sci-fi scenario seems to have become a reality. Remember “Back to the Future”? Well, now it’s time for Back to the Past!
Expert researchers at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology teamed up with the ones from the U.S. and Switzerland and “returned the state of a quantum computer a fraction of a second into the past,” Phys.org announces.
Scientists also calculated the probability that an electron in empty interstellar space will travel back into the recent past. This amazing study is published in Scientific Reports.
“This is one in a series of papers on the possibility of violating the second law of thermodynamics. That law is closely related to the notion of the arrow of time that posits the one-way direction of time from the past to the future,” according to the study’s lead author Gordey Lesovik.
He continued and explained that “We began by describing a so-called local perpetual motion machine of the second kind. Then, in December, we published a paper that discusses the violation of the second law via a device called Maxwell’s demon.”
Lesovik said, “The most recent paper approaches the same problem from a third angle: We have artificially created a state that evolves in a direction opposite to that of the thermodynamic arrow of time.”
Future vs. past
Phys.org also debates the issues that make the future different from the past.
They note that most physics laws don’t make any distinctions between the future and the past. They also give an example – an equation which describes the collision and rebound of two billiard balls which are identical.
If there’s a close up of the even and it’s recorded with a camera and played in reverse, they say that it can still be represented by the very same equation.
More than that, it seems that it’s not even possible to make a difference from the recording if it has been doctored. Both versions are reportedly plausible. It would only look that the balls defy the sense of time.
The online publication offers more examples to explain the differences between the future and the past.
Head over to the official website to find out more and also to learn how the researchers have attempted to reverse time in a four-stage experiment.
Rada attended the courses in the Faculty of Letters, Romanian-English section, and finished the Faculty of Theatre and Television, Theatrical Journalism section, both within the framework of Babeş-Bolyai University of Cluj-Napoca. Up ’til now, she reviewed books, movies, and theatre-plays, enjoying subjects from the cultural niche. Her experience in writing also intersects the IT niche, given the fact that she worked as a content editor for firms that produce software for mobile devices. She is collaborating with online advertising agencies, writing articles for several websites and blogs.