w U.S $26.95/Canada $ 0 A f a s c i n a t i n g e x p l o r a t i o n of t h e s c i e n c e of the i m p o s s i b l e — f r o m d e a t h r a y s a n d f o r c e f i e l d s to invisibility c l o a h s — reuealing to w h a t e n t e n t s u c h t e c h n o l o ­ gies might be a c h i e u a b l e d e c a d e s or m i l l e n n i a into t h e f u t u r e O ne h u n d r e d years ago, scientists w o u l d have said that lasers, televisions, and the atomic b o m b w e r e b e y o n d t h e r e a l m of p h y s i c a l p o s s i b i l i t y I n Physics of the Impossible, t h e r e n o w n e d p h y s i c i s t M i c h i o K a k u e x p l o r e s to w h a t e x t e n t t h e t e c h n o l o g i e s a n d d e v i c e s of s c i e n c e f i c t i o n t h a t a r e deemed equally impossible today might well become commonplace in the future F r o m t e l e p o r t a t i o n to t e l e k i n e s i s , K a k u uses t h e w o r l d o f s c i e n c e f i c t i o n to e x p l o r e t h e fundamen­ t a l s — a n d t h e l i m i t s — o f t h e l a w s of p h y s i c s as w e k n o w t h e m today He r a n k s t h e i m p o s s i b l e t e c h n o l o ­ gies b y c a t e g o r y — C l a s s I, I I , and I I I — d e p e n d i n g on w h e n t h e y m i g h t be a c h i e v e d , w i t h i n the n e x t cen­ tury, m i l l e n n i a , or perhaps never I n a compelling and thought-provoking narrative, he explains: • H o w the science of optics a n d electromagnetism m a y one day enable us to bend l i g h t around object, like a stream flowing an around a boulder, m a k i n g the object invisible to observers "down­ stream" • H o w r a m j e t rockets, l a s e r sails, a n t i m a t t e r en­ g i n e s , a n d n a n o r o c k e t s m a y one d a y t a k e us to the nearby stars • H o w telepathy and psychokinesis, once consid­ ered pseudoscience, m a y one day be possible using advances in MRI, computers, ductivity, and supercon­ nanotechnology • W h y a t i m e m a c h i n e is a p p a r e n t l y consistent w i t h the k n o w n l a w s of q u a n t u m physics, a l t h o u g h it would take an unbelievably advanced civiliza­ t i o n to a c t u a l l y b u i l d one (continued from front flap) K a k u u s e s h i s d i s c u s s i o n of e a c h t e c h n o l o g y as a j u m p i n g - o f f p o i n t to e x p l a i n t h e s c i e n c e b e h i n d i t A n e x t r a o r d i n a r y s c i e n t i f i c a d v e n t u r e , Physics of the Impossible t a k e s r e a d e r s o n a n u n f o r g e t t a b l e , mes­ m e r i z i n g j o u r n e y i n t o the w o r l d of s c i e n c e t h a t both enlightens and entertains ftllCHIO K A K U is t h e H e n r y S e m a t P r o f e s s o r of T h e o r e t i c a l P h y s i c s at the G r a d u a t e C e n t e r of the C i t y U n i v e r s i t y of N e w Y o r k He is t h e c o f o u n d e r o f s t r i n g f i e l d t h e o r y He h a s w r i t t e n s e v e r a l b o o k s , i n c l u d i n g Parallel Worlds a n d Beyond Einstein, a n d h i s b e s t s e l l e r , Hyperspace, w a s v o t e d o n e of t h e b e s t s c i ­ e n c e b o o k s of t h e y e a r b y t h e New York Times a n d t h e Washington Post He is a f r e q u e n t g u e s t o n n a t i o n a l TV, a n d h i s n a t i o n a l l y s y n d i c a t e d r a d i o p r o g r a m is h e a r d i n c i t i e s He l i v e s i n N e w Y o r k City wuuuu.mkahu.org iAiwiAi.doubleday.com Jacket design by Annabelle Bronstein Jacket photograph by David A Hardy/Science Photo Library Author photograph by Andrea Brizzi Printed in the U.SA A D U A N C E P R A I S E F O R PHYSICS OF THE IMPOSSIBLE "A genuine tour de force, skillfully delivering cogent descriptions of everything from subatomic structure to the laws of the universe." — K I R K U S R E V I E W S (starred) CRITICAL A C C L A I M F O R PARALLEL WORLDS "A wonderful tour, with an expert guide, of a cosmos whose comprehension forces us to stretch to the very limits of imagination." —Brian Greene, author of THE FABRIC OF THE COSMOS "A highly readable and exhilarating romp through the frontiers of cosmology." —Martin Rees, author of OUR COSMIC HABITAT and OUR FINAL CENTURY "A roller-coaster ride through the universe—and beyond—by one of the world's finest science writers." —Paul Davies, Australian Centre for Astrobiology, Macquarie University, Sydney, and author of HOW TO BUILD A TIME MACHINE CRITICAL A C C L A i m F O R HVPERSPÛCE "One of the best popular accounts of higher physics." —Jim Holt, WALL STREET JOURNAL "Among the best of the genre to appear in recent years What a wonderful adventure it is." — N E W YORK T I M E S BOOK REVIEW "Mesmerizing the reader exits dizzy, elated, and looking at the world in a literally revolutionary way." —WASHINGTON POST BOOK WORLD PHYSICS OF THE IMPOSSIBLE Other books by Michio Kaku PARALLEL WORLDS EINSTEIN'S COSMOS VISIONS HYPERSPACE BEYOND EINSTEIN /PS p i I IIP A SCIENTIFIC INTO THE W O R L D EXPLORATION OF PHASERS, TELEPORTATION, AND FORCE TIME Doubleday NEW YORK LONDON TORONTO SYDNEY AUCKLAND FIELDS, TRAVEL PUBLISHED B Y D O U B L E D AY Copyright © 2008 by Michio Raku All Rights Reserved Published in the United States by Doubleday, an imprint of The Doubleday Broadway Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York www.doubleday.com and the portrayal of an anchor with a dolphin are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc DOUBLEDAY Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Raku, Michio Physics of the impossible : a scientific exploration into the world of phasers, force fields, teleportation, and time travel / Michio Raku -1st ed p cm Includes bibliographical references and index Physics-Miscellanea Science-Miscellanea Mathematical physicsMiscellanea Physics in literature Human-machine systems I Title QC75.R18 2008 530-dc25 2007030290 ISBN 978-0-385-52069-0 PRINTED IN T H E U N I T E D S T A T E S O F A M E R I C A 10 First Edition To my loving wife, Shizue, and to Michelle and Alyson NOTES - creation of the human brain via evolution does lower entropy, but this is more than compensated for by the chaos that we create (e.g., pollution, waste heat, global warming, etc.) Page 269: One of the proponents of this idea Tesla, however, was also a tragic figure, probably cheated out of the royalties of many of his patents and inventions that paved the way for the coming of radio, TV, and the telecommunications revolution (We physicists, however, have guaranteed that the name of Tesla will not be forgotten We have named the unit of mag­ netism after him One tesla equals 10,000 gauss, or roughly twenty thousand times the magnetic field of the Earth.) Today he is largely forgotten, except that his more eccentric claims have become the stuff of conspiracy buffs and urban legend Tesla believed that he could communicate with life on Mars, solve Einstein's unfinished unified field theory, split the Earth in half like an apple, and develop a death ray that could destroy ten thousand airplanes from a distance of 250 miles (The FBI took his claim of a death ray so seriously that it seized much of his notes and laboratory equipment after his death, some of which are still kept in secret storage even today.) Tesla was at the height of his fame in 1931 when he made the front page of Time magazine He regularly dazzled the public by unleashing huge bolts of lightning, containing millions of volts of electrical energy, to gasping au­ diences Tesla's undoing, however, was that he was notoriously sloppy with his finances and his legal affairs Pitted against the battery of lawyers repre­ senting the emerging electrical giants of today, Tesla lost control over his most important patents He also began to show signs of what is today called OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder), being obsessed with the number "three." He later became paranoid, living in destitution in the New Yorker Hotel, fearing being poisoned by his enemies, and was always one step ahead of his creditors He died in total poverty at the age of eighty-six in 1943 EPILOGUE: THE FUTURE OF THE IMPOSSIBLE Page 286: Astronomer John Barrow notes, "Historians still debate " Barrow, Impossibility, p 47 Page 286: Mathematician David Hilbert, in rejecting Comte's claims Barrow, Impossibility, p 209 Page 286: "Two hundred years ago, you could ask anybody, "Pickover, p 192 Page 287: "All the great questions about the nature of the Universe-from its beginning to its end-turn out to be unanswerable." Barrow, Impossibility, p 250 Page 287: "But gravitational waves from [the] iryflation area are relics of the universe "Rocky Rolb, New Scientist Magazine, November 18,2006, p 44 Page 290: "These efforts will reveal intimate details of the Big Bang sin­ gularity ."Hawking, p 136 3i6 NOTES Page 291: "Do the laws of physics permit highly advanced civiliza­ tions " Barrow, Impossibility, p 143 Page 294: "In 2056, I think you'll be able to buy a T-shirt " Max Tegmark, New Scientist Magazine, November 18, 2006, p 37 Page 296: Today the leading (and only) candidate for a theory The reason for this is that when we take Einstein's theory of gravity and add quantum corrections, these corrections instead of being small are infinite Over the years physicists have devised a number of tricks to eliminate these infinite terms, but they all fail for a quantum theory of gravity But in string theory these corrections vanish exactly for several reasons First, string the­ ory has a symmetry, called supersymmetry, which cancels many of these di­ vergent terms Also string theory has a cutoff, the length of string, which helps to control these infinities The origin of these infinities actually goes back to classical theory New­ ton's inverse-square law says that the force between two particles is infinite if the distance of separation goes to zero This infinity, which is apparent even in Newton's theory, carries over to the quantum theory But string the­ ory has a cutoff, the length of the string, or the Planck length, which allows us to control these divergences Page 299: "We would then be able to observe them in the sky "Alexan­ der Vilenkin, New Scientist Magazine, November 18, 2006, p 51 Page 300: Astrophysicist John Barrow summarizes this logic this way Barrow, Impossibility, p 219 Adams, Fred, and Greg Laughlin The Five Ages of the Universe: Inside the Physics of Eternity New York: Free Press, 1999 Asimov, Isaac The Gods Themselves New York: Bantam Books, 1990 Asimov, Isaac, and Jason A Shulman, eds Isaac Asimov's Book of Sci­ ence and Nature Quotations New York: Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 1988 Barrow, John Between Inner Space and Outer Space Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 1999 Impossibility: The Limits of Science and the Science of Limits Ox­ ford, England: Oxford University Press, 1998 Theories of Everything Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 1991 Calaprice, Alice, ed The Expanded Quotable Einstein Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2000 Cavelos, Jeanne The Science of Star Wars: An Astrophysicist's Indepen­ dent Examination of Space Travel, Aliens, Planets, and Robots as Portrayed in the Star Wars Films and Books New York: St Martin's Press, 2000 Clark, Ronald Einstein: The Life and Times New York: World Publish­ ing, 1971 Cole, R C Sympathetic Vibrations: Reflections on Physics as a Way of Life New York: Bantam Books, 1985 Crease, R., and C C Mann Second Creation New York: Macmillan, 1986 Croswell, Ren The Universe at Midnight New York: Free Press, 2001 Davies, Paul How to Build a Time Machine New York: Penguin Books, 2001 Dyson, Freeman Disturbing the Universe New York: Harper and Row, 1979 Ferris, Timothy The Whole Shebang: A State-of-the-Universe(s) Report New York: Simon and Schuster, 1997 Folsing, Albrecht Albert Einstein New York: Penguin Books, 1997 Gilster, Paul Centauri Dreams: Imagining and Planning Interstellar Ex­ ploration New York: Springer Science, 2004 3i8 BIBLIOGRAPHY Gott, J Richard Time Travel in Einstein's Universe Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 2001 Greene, Brian The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory New York: W W Norton, 1999 Hawking, Stephen W., Rip S Thorne, Igor Novikov, Timothy Ferris, and Alan Lightman The Future of Spacetime New York: W W Norton, 2002 Horgan, John The End of Science Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley, 1996 Raku, Michio Einstein's Cosmos New York: Atlas Books, 2004 Hyperspace New York: Anchor Books, 1994 Parallel Worlds: A Journey Through Creation, Higher Dimensions, and the Future of the Cosmos New York: Doubleday, 2005 Visions: How Science Will Revolutionize the 21st Century New York: Anchor Books, 1997 Lemonick, Michael The Echo of the Big Bang Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2005 Mallove, Eugene, and Gregory Matloff The Star/light Handbook: A Pio­ neer's Guide to Interstellar Travel New York: Wiley and Sons, 1989 Nahin, Paul J Time Machines New York: Springer Verlag, 1999 Pais, A Subtle Is the Lord New York: Oxford University Press, 1982 Pickover, Clifford A Time: A Traveler's Guide New York: Oxford Univer­ sity Press, 1998 Randi, James An Encyclopedia of Claims, Frauds, and Hoaxes of the Oc­ cult and Supernatural New York: St Martin's Press, 1995 Rees, Martin Before the Beginning: Our Universe and Others Reading, Mass.: Perseus Books, 1997 Sagan, Carl The Cosmic Connection: An Extraterrestrial Perspective New York: Anchor Press, 1973 Thorne, Rip S Black Holes and Time Warps: Einstein's Outrageous Legacy New York: W W Norton, 1994 Ward, Peter D., and Donald Brownlee Rare Earth: Why Complex Life Is Uncommon in the Universe New York: Springer Science, 2000 Weinberg, Steve Dreams of a Final Theory: The Search for Fundamental Laws of Nature New York: Pantheon Books, 1992 Wells, H G The Time Machine: An Invention London: McFarland and Co., 1996 Adams, Douglas, 59-60 Air Force, U.S., 148, 176 Alcubierre drive, 204-5, 207-8, 211 Allen, Woody, 197, 312rc Allen Telescope Array, 132 Amazing Randi, The, 90-91, 310/z Ames, Aldrich, 78 Angels and Demons (Brown), 179 animals, 71-74, 126, 140 anthropic principle, 241, 253 antigravity, 293 antimatter, xi, 48, 77, 178-94, 205-6, 213,268 Dirac and, 186-88, 190 economics of, 181, 183-84 in moving backward in time, 278-81, 283 naturally occurring, 183-86, 193 production of, 180-84, 186, 193 rockets propelled by, xvii, 165, 178, 182-86, 193-94 Archimedes, 35 Aristotle, 231 Army, U.S., 92-93 artificial intelligence (AI), 102, 104-18 bottom-up approach to, 116-18 history of, 104-9, 117 top-down approach to, 110-16, 118 see also robots, robotics Artificial Intelligence (film), 104, 123 Artsutanov, Yuri, 167 Asimov, Isaac, 71, 103, 179, 257-58, 268 asteroids, 134, 155, 157, 170 atomic bombs, xiii, xv, 8, 34, 45, 49-50, 210, 251 antimatter and, 179-80 space travel and, 162-64 Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), 161 atomic theory, 19-20, 29, 37, 57-58, 264-65, 286, 298 Augustine, Saint, 217 Back to the Future, 11-12, 218, 226 Barnard's Star, 164 Baron-Cohen, Simon, 189 Barrow, John, 286-87, 300 Beam Power Challenge, 168 beam weapons, 47-50 in history, 35-36, 505n-6n lasers as, 34-36, 38-39, 41-43, 45, 47, 50, 52, 306rc Bentley paradox, 292 Bhaskara, 260 Bickerton, A W., 154 big bang, 35, 50, 65, 213, 220-21, 223, 236, 279 antimatter and, 184-85, 192 and future of the impossible, 286-91, 293, 298-99, 302 how it started, 250-51 monopoles and, 151-52 parallel universes and, 245-46 period before, xviii, 287-91, 298 and speed of light, 198, 202 tachyons and, 281-83 Big Bang Observer (BBO), 290, 298 Big Crunch, 240, 246 Big Freeze, 240, 249, 270, 291 Big Splat, 240, 290-91 biofeedback, 94-96 320 biological arms race, 140-41 Birbaumer, Niels, 95 black holes, xiii, xviii, 156, 252, 235-36, 249-50 and future of the impossible, 288, 290, 297-99 gamma ray bursters and, 51-52 Hawking on, 220-21 and speed of light, 208-12 wormholes and, 209-11, 223 Blue Book, Project, 148 Bohr, Niels, xvi, 37, 53, 57, 245, 296 Boltzmann, Ludwig, 264-65, 268, 298 Bose Einstein condensates (BECs), 65-66 Bradley, Aston, 64-65 brain, brains, 68, 141, 231 entropy and, 314rc-15/i machine interfaces with, 95-97 psychokinesis and, 94-98, 101 robots and, 104, 110-12, 116-17, 120-21, 310rc-12rc scans of, 76-84, 86-87, 94-96, 101, 309« telepathy and, 72, 74-87, 309n BrainGate, 95-97 Brenner, Sydney, 121 Brooks, Rodney, 111, 116 Brown, Dan, 179 Brownlee, Donald, 136 Bruno, Giordano, 127 Bryan, William Jennings, 284 Buckyballs, 30-31 Bussard, Robert W., 160 Cabra test, 48-49 Capek, Rarel, 105 carbon, 124 Buckyballs and, 30-31 extraterrestrial life and, 128-29 nanotubes and, 10, 15, 167-68 Carrie (Ring), 89-90 Casimir, Hendrik, 206-7 Catala, Claude, 138 cause and effect, law of, 276, 279-83 C elegans, 117 Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), 67, 75-76, 78, 150 centrifugal force, 166, 173 ceramics, 13-14, 21 CERN, 179, 181, 201 charge parity-reversed (CP-reversed) universes, 192-93 charge parity time-reversed (CPTreversed) universes, 193 charge parity (CP) violation, 184, 192 charge-reversed (C-reversed) universes, 190-93 chemical lasers, 38, 40 Chinese room test, 108 Christmas Carol, A (Dickens), 218 Christopher, Milbourne, 74 Christus Hypercubius (Dali), 232 civilizations, 284, 312rc extraterrestrial life and, 145-47 parallel universes and, 249, 251, 253 and speed of light, 213-15 time travel and, 224, 275 types of, 145-46 Clarke, Arthur C, 3, 124, 126 space travel and, 167, 170-71 Clever Hans, 71-72, 74 closed time-like curves, 222 Cocconi, Giuseppe, 130-31 COG, 116 coin toss experiments, 92 cold war, 74-75, 140 communication systems, 141, 146 computers, 6-7, 81, 150, 242, 276 extraterrestrial life and, 132, 134 psychokinesis and, 94-98, 100-101 quantum, 66-69, 123, 204 robots and, 103, 106-8, 110-17, 120, 122-24, 310n Comte, Auguste, 285-86 Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, A (Twain), 218 continental drift, xi-xii Copenhagen School, 243, 245-46 Copernicus, Nicolaus, 127 Corot satellite, 138-39 cosmic consciousness, 243-44 cosmic rays, 172, 180, 185, 299 cosmic strings, 223-24 cosmological constant, 291-94 Cosmos space sail, 158 Cours de Philosophie (Comte), 285-86 Cox, John, 263 crystals, 20, 26-27 lasers and, 38, 40-41 Cummings, E E., 229 CYC, 113-14 Daedalus, Project, 164 Dali, Salvador, 232 Damasio, Antonio, 120 INDEX i dark energy, 270-71, 291 dark matter, 205-6, 240, 299 Darwin probe, 139 Davy, Humphrey, 4-5 Death Stars: gamma ray bursters and, 35, 52 lasers and, 34-35, 39, 43, 45, 47, 50 physics of, 49-50 decision making, 119-21 decoherence, 244-45, 248, 314rc Deep Blue, 112 Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), 21, 115 deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), 25, 99, 123-25, 191, 286 extraterrestrial life and, 129, 135-36, 142, 150 parallel universes and, 252-53 teleportation and, 62, 66 Deutsch, David, 68 diamagnets, 14 Dickens, Charles, 218 dinosaurs, xi-xii, 134, 156, 220 parallel universes and, 244, 248 Dirac, Paul, 186-90, 245, 277 Disintegration Machine, The (Doyle), 55 Donoghue, John, 95-97 Doomsday, 273-75, 279 Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan, 54-55, 306rc, 309« Drake, Frank, 129-31, 133-36 Duchamps, Marcel, 232 Dwyer, Larry, 224-25 dye lasers, 40-41 Dyson, Freeman, 163, 170, 241 and future of the impossible, 284, 295, 300 Eddington, Arthur, 209-10, 266, 295 Edison, Thomas, 4, 258, 269 Edwards, Michael, 91 Einstein, Albert, ix-xi, xv, 6, 43, 160, 198-205, 265, 280-81 antimatter and, 190-91 BECs and, 65-66 black holes and, xiii, 209-11 EPR experiment and, 60-62, 202 and future of the impossible, 287, 292-93, 295, 298, 302, 316« parallel universes and, 233-36, 238, 241, 248 quantum theory and, 37, 56, 58, 60-62, 242-43 relativity theory of, 19, 187, 199-205, 208, 219-21, 227, 232-33, 235-36, 292 and speed of light, 194, 198-200, 288 and theory of everything, x, xvh, 236, 238, 295, 315rc on time, 200-203, 207, 219, 222 time travel and, 222-23, 227 Einstein lenses, 205-6 Einstein-Rosen Bridge, 209-10 electricity, 26-27, 30, 36, 129, 132, 171, 181, 259-60, 269, 315« brain and, 76, 84 force fields and, 4-9, 11-12, 18 fusion and, 44-46 lasers and, 38-41 robots and, 103, 123-24 space travel and, 161-62, 165, 176-78 electroencephalograms (EEGs): psychokinesis and, 94, 96, 101 telephathy and, 76, 78, 84, 86 electromagnetism (EM), 21, 51, 76, 85, 163, 171, 173 force fields and, 5-7 Maxwell and, 7, 18-19 psychokinesis and, 93, 97-98 electron waves, 56-61 eleven dimensions, 238-39, 299 emotional robots, 118-21, 123 energy, 37, 257-65, 267-71, 280-82, 306n-7n conservation of, xiv, 264-65, 267-68, 271 for Death Stars, 43, 45, 47 and future of the impossible, 291, 293, 299 history viewed through, 259-60 from hydrogen bombs, 41, 47-49 perpetual motion machines and, 257-58, 260-63, 265 Planck, 212-15, 249 tachyons and, 280-81 from the vacuum, 269-71, 291, 293 see also electricity; negative energy Enigma machine, 107 entropy, 263, 265-66, 314rc-15/i EPR experiment, 60-62, 202 European Space Agency, 139, 157, 289 event horizon, 209-12, 227 Everett, Hugh, 244-45 everything, theory of, xvii-xviii, 121, 227 and Einstein, x, xvh, 236, 238, 295, 315rc 322 and future of the impossible, 286, 294-96, 299-303 and incompleteness theorem, 300-301 excimer lasers, 40 extrasensory perception (ESP), 73, 75, 89, 92-93 extrasolar planets: extraterrestrial life and, 127, 129-30, 133-34, 136-40, 147, 152-53 space travel and, 152, 164 extraterrestrial life, xvii, 81, 124, 126-47, 150-53, 302, 307rc antimatter and, 191-93 fortuitous accidents and, 135-36 Goldilocks zone and, 133-34, 136-38 in history, 126-27 listening to, 130-33, 140, 152-53 moons and, 126, 133-36 parallel universes and, 244, 248 physical appearance of, 140-42, 144 and physics of advanced civilizations, 145-47 scale law and, 142-44 scientific search for, 128-33, 136-40, 152-53 and search for earth-like planets, 136-40 UFOs and, 147, 150-52 eyesight, 140-42 FAB (Gershenfeld), 100 Fahri, Edward, 251-52 false vacuum theory, 282-83 Faraday, Michael, 4-6, 18-19, 57, 171 Feynman, Richard, 29, 297 and advanced waves from future, 277-80 antimatter and, 191-92, 278 quantum theory and, 241-42, 280 fifth dimension, 233-34, 236 fission, 46, 158, 161-62, 164-65 Flash Gordon, ix-x, 17, 186 Fly, The, 55 Forbidden Planet, 89 force fields, ix, 3-15 Faraday and, 4-6, 18-19, 57 four forces and, 6-8, 15 magnetic lévitation and, 11-15 plasma windows and, 8-10, 15 for shields, 3-4, 6-11, 15 four dimensions, fourth dimension, 33, 231-33, 239, 299 f MO EX fusion, 43-47 inertial confinement for, 43-46 ITER and, 45-47, 160 magnetic confinement for, 45-47 space travel and, 152, 159-61, 165-66, 178 future, xii, 26-29, 153-56, 193-94, 283-303 advanced waves from, 276-81, 283 Death Stars and, 50, 52 end of Earth in, 154-56 force fields and, 9, 11-12, 15 of the impossible, 284-303, 316n invisibility and, 26, 29, 33 of metamaterials, 27-29 psychokinesis and, 94-98, 101-2 robots and, 112-13, 118, 120, 123-25 space travel and, 168, 177-78, 291 teleportation and, 66, 69, 307« time travel and, 217-19, 225, 291 wormholes and, 211, 291 see also precognition Galileo, 245, 288 Gamgee, John, 262 gamma rays, 19, 278-79 antimatter and, xi, 184, 188 bursters and, 35, 50-52 gas, gases, 43, 129, 149, 182, 209, 240, 257, 264 lasers and, 38-40 space travel and, 157, 161, 171 see also plasma, plasmas Gates, Bill, 114-15 Gauss, Karl, 231-32 Geller, Uri, 90-91 Gershenfeld, Neil, 100-101 Gilchrist, Brian, 177-78 Goddard, Robert, xiv Gôdel, Kurt, 223, 247 incompleteness theorem of, 106, 109, 300-302 Gods Themselves, The (Asimov), 257-58, 268 Goldfinger, 36 Goldilocks zone, 240-41 extraterrestrial life and, 133-34, 136-38 Gott, Richard, 223-24 gravity, gravitational fields, 43, 46, 93, 144, 151, 190, 204-5, 208-11, 227, 281 black holes and, 208-10, 220-21 INDEX 3 extraterrestrial life and, 133-35 force fields and, 6-7, 11 parallel universes and, 233, 235-40, 247 space travel and, 166, 170, 173, 176 string theory and, 290, 316rc gravity waves, 287-92, 302-3 Greeks, 17, 35, 104, 106, 236, 272, 305n parallel universes and, 231-32 and theory of everything, 294-95, 300 Guth, Alan, 244, 246, 250-52 Haldane, J B S., 257 Harry Potter, 16-17, 20-21, 23, 28 hat tricks, 71, 308rc Hawking, Stephen, 95, 186, 188, 235 incompleteness theorem and, 300-301 parallel universes and, 246-47 and theory of everything, 294, 299-301 time travel and, xv-xvi, 216, 220-22, 227 Haynes, John, 81 Heinlein, Robert, 166-67, 233 Heisenberg, Werner, 37 and theory of everything, 295-96 uncertainty principle of, 30, 55-56, 58, 109, 122-23, 206, 245, 306«-7n Henderson, Linda Dalrymple, 232 Herschcovitch, Ady, Higgs bosons, 235, 283 Hilbert, David, 268, 286 Hindus, Hinduism, 35, 44, 230, 244, 305 n Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, The (Adams), 59-60 Hofstadter, Douglas, 112 holograms, 31-33 Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, 144 Howe, Steven, 183 Hubble, Edwin, x, 293 Hubble Space Telescope, xiii, 139, 206, 298 hydrogen bombs, 47-50, 179, 184 energy emitted by, 41, 47-49 fusion and, 44-45 how they work, 49-50 nuclear-fired X-ray lasers and, 47-48 space travel and, 163-64 hyperspace, xvii, 230-41 string theory and, 234-38, 240 /, Robot, 103 immortality, 125, 145, 311ra-12/i impossible, impossibility: categories of, xvi-xvii future of, 284-303, 316rc Kaku's fascination with, x-xi, xviii list of, 285-86 relativeness of, xi-xiii studying of, xiv-xvi incompleteness theorem, 106, 109, 300-302 Independence Day, 126, 147 inertial confinement, 43-46 inflationary universe theory, 282 and future of the impossible, 289-90, 293 parallel universes and, 247, 250-52 International Linear Collider (ILC), 213 International Space Station, 156, 165-66, 172 International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), 45-47, 160 inverse square law, 237, 299, 316/1 invisibility, ix, xvii, 16-33 atomic theory and, 19-20 in history, 17-18, 305rc holograms and, 31-33 Maxwell and, 19-20 metamaterials and, 21-29 nanotechnology and, 23-24, 26-31 parallel universes and, 239-40 with plasmonics, 26-27 Invisible Man, The (Wells), 16, 18, 33, 232, 239 ion engines, 157-58, 164-65, 177 "Is the End in Sight for Theoretical Physics?" (Hawking), 299-300 Jackson, Gerald, 185-86 Janus Equation (Spruill), 216 "Jaunt, The" (Ring), 307/z Jones, David, 80 Jupiter, Jupiter-sized planets, 211, 274 extraterrestrial life and, 133-34, 137-38 Just, Marcel A., 81 Raluza, Theodor, 233-34, 236 Rardashev, Nikolai, 145-46 Kasparov, Garry, 112 324 Kawakami, Naoki, 31 Relley, James Patrick, 307/1 Kelly, John Ernst Worrell, 261-62 Kelvin, Lord, xiii-xiv, 34 Kepler, Johannes, 126, 158 Kepler satellite, 138-39 Kerr, Roy, 210-11 King, Stephen, 89-90, 307/z Kolb, Rocky, 287 Lady Wonder, 74 Langleben, Daniel, 79 Large Hadron Collider (LHC), 201, 212-13, 237, 283, 298-99 Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO), 288, 290 Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA), 289-90, 298 lasers, 34-50, 64, 66-67, 82, 197, 212, 249, 281, 289 as beam weapons, 34-36, 38-39, 41-43, 45, 47, 50, 52, 306/1 Death Stars and, 34-35, 39, 43, 45, 47, 50 extraterrestrial life and, 126, 132 force fields and, 3, 7, 9-11, 15 fusion and, 43-46 how they work, 38-39 invisibility and, 27, 32 nuclear-fired X-ray, 47-50 particle accelerators and, 214-15 psychokinesis and, 100-101 space travel and, 152, 159, 165, 168, 172, 178 telepathy and, 72-73 types of, 39-41 Lawson's criterion, 44 Lee, T D., 191 Lenat, Douglas, 113-14 Leonardo da Vinci, 104-5, 261 lévitation: magnets and, 11-15 psychokinesis and, 88, 93, 97-98 Levy, Walter, 74 Lewis, C S., 229 lie detectors, 77-80 light, 267, 308« beam weapons and, 34-36, 42 bending of, 22-23, 25-28, 205-6, 208 extraterrestrial life and, 134, 136, 139 future and, 194, 286, 288-89, 302-3 INDEX invisibility and, 16, 19-20, 22-29, 31-32 lasers and, 10, 27, 32, 34-35, 38-41, 46, 72-73, 82, 126, 132, 281, 306rc Maxwell on, 19, 36, 57, 93, 105, 199-200, 233-34, 276-77, 302 in moving backward in time, 276-77 parallel universes and, 233-34 photoelectric effect and, 37, 56 speed of, ix, 19, 22, 42, 61-62, 159-61, 163-65, 169-70, 172, 175-77, 194, 197-205, 219, 224, 281, 286, 288, 303, 306/1 tachyons and, 280-82 teleportation and, 63-65 traveling faster than, 194, 197-98, 201-15, 218-19, 224, 280-82, 303 light sabers, 34-35, 39, 42, 52 Limited Test Ban Treaty, 162-63 Linde, Andrei, 250, 252 Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, The (Lewis), 229 Looking Glass universes, 190-91 Lord of the Rings, The (Tolkien), 16-17 Macbeth (Shakespeare), 273 magnetic confinement, 45-47 magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), 101 functional (1MRI), 77, 79-82 handheld, 82-83 lie detectors and, 77, 79-80 telepathy and, 77-84, 86-87 magnetism, magnetic fields, xi, 67, 135, 260 antimatter and, 180-82 brain scans and, 77, 82-83 force fields and, 4-9, 11-15 fusion and, 45-47 space travel and, 158, 172-73, 176 UFOs and, 151-52 "Man Without a Body, The" (Mitchell), 54 many worlds theory, 226-27 parallel universes and, 244-46, 314/1 Mars, x, 36, 200, 274, 315/1 antimatter and, 182, 186 extraterrestrial life and, 127-28, 135 robot rovers on, 109, 116 space travel and, 157-58, 172-73 masers, 38 Maxwell, James Clerk, 18-20, 76, 264 on EM, 7, 18-19 IHDEX invisibility and, 19-20 on light, 19, 36, 57, 93, 105, 199-200, 233-34, 276-77, 302 parallel universes and, 233-34 precognition and, 276-77 Meissner effect, 14, 97 Men in Black, 144 metamaterials, 21-29 meteors, xh, 149, 155, 169, 172-73, 186, 205, 275, 286 Metropolis, 105 Michell, John, 297-98 Michelson, Albert A., 285 microwaves, microwave radiation, 19, 38, 168, 287 extraterrestrial life and, 130-31 invisibility and, 21-24 Miller, Stanley, 129 Miller, William, 274-75 mind, see brain, brains Minority Report, 12, 309n Minsky, Marvin, 117-18, 121, 125, 5Un "Missing One's Coach," 217-18 Mitchell, Edward Page, 54 Mitchell, Tom, 81 monopoles, 151-52, 252 moon, moons, 154, 199, 207 extraterrestrial life and, 126, 133-36 space travel and, 152, 156-57, 159, 171-72, 176-77 Moore's law, 24, 122-23, 125 Moravec, Hans, 118-19, 124, 312rc Morrison, Philip, 130-31 multiverse, 225, 230, 238-41, 245, 247, 249, 252-53 Myhrvold, Nathan, 21 Nagle, Mathew, 95-96 nanotechnology, 69, 243 beam weapons and, 41-42 carbon and, 10, 15, 167-68 invisibility and, 23-24, 26-31 robots and, 98-102 space travel and, 152, 161-62, 175-78 National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), 116, 176-78, 289 antimatter and, 183, 185 extraterrestrial life and, 131, 139 negative matter and, 205-6 space travel and, 156-57, 161-62, 164, 167-68, 171, 177-78 National Ignition Facility (NIF), 44-45 Nazis, 36, 107, 244, 305rc-6rc negative energy, 205-8, 215, 226 wormholes and, 211, 224 negative matter, 205-6, 211, 281 neural network, neural networks, 81 brain as, 83-84, 87, 116 robots and, 116-17, 124 neutrinos, neutrino radiation, 235, 287, 298, 302 neutron stars, 170, 249, 288, 290 Newton, Isaac, xiii, 18-19, 35-38, 76, 105, 134-35, 140, 150, 218, 270, 288, 307rc antimatter and, 190-91, 193 and conservation of energy, 264-65 Dirac and, 186, 188-89 Einstein and, 19, 198-200 and future of the impossible, 292, 299, 51Qn on light, 199-200 parallel universes and, 237, 299 precognition and, 276, 283 quantum theory and, 30, 36-38, 56-57, 241-42 teleportation and, 56, 59 Nordley, Gerald, 176 Nostradamus, 272-73 Nova laser, 44 NSTAR ion thruster, 157 nuclear electric rockets, 161-62, 165, 178 nuclear-fired X-ray lasers, 47-50 nuclear pulsed rockets, 152, 163-65 Nude Descending a Staircase (Duchamps), 232 Number of the Beast, The (Heinlein), 233 "On Distance" (Ptolemy), 231 "On Heaven" (Aristotle), 231 Onnes, Heike, 11-12 Oppenheimer, J Robert, 48, 210, 235 optical camouflage, 31-32 Ord-Hume, Arthur, 261 Orion spacecraft, 156, 163-64 Ozma, Project, 131 parallel universes, ix, xii, 210, 229-53, 5Un hyperspace and, xvii, 230-41 multiverse and, 225, 230, 238-41, 245, 247, 249, 252-53 326 perpetual motion machines and, 257-58, 268 quantum theory and, 230, 235-39, 241-48 string theory and, 234-40, 299 time travel and, 225-26 types of, 230-49 paramagnets, 14 Paris in the Twentieth Century (Verne), xii-xiii parity-reversed (P-reversed) universes, 190-93 particle accelerators, 201, 283, 298-99, 303 antimatter and, 180-83 parallel universes and, 235-37 ripping space and, 212-15 pattern recognition 110-13, 115, 117 Pauli, Wolfgang, 295-96, 298 Payload for Antimatter-Matter Exploration and Light-Nuclei Astrophysics (PAMELA), 184-85 Penfield, Wilder, 85 Penrose, Roger, 104, 108-9, 310rc-llrc Perez, Gil, 306n perpetual motion machines, xiv, 257-71, 284, 314rc entropy and, 265-66 in history, 260-63 as hoaxes, 261-64, 266-67 Persistence of Memory (Dali), 232 personal fabricators, 100-101 Pfurtscheller, Gert, 84 Phoenix, Project, 132 photochromatics, 10-11, 15 photoelectric effect, 37, 56 photolithography, 24, 28 photonic crystals, 26-27 photons, 37-39, 56, 63, 190, 227 lasers and, 38-39, 66 physics, physicists: of advanced civilizations, 145-47 completeness of, 299-303 of Death Stars, 49-50 Raku's background in, x-xi playground of, 220-24 Pickover, Clifford, 141 Planck, Max, 37, 88 Planck energy, 212-15, 249 planets, 134-36 see also extrasolar planets plasma, plasmas, 42 force fields and, 8-10, 15 fusion and, 45-46 particle accelerators and, 214-15 space travel and, 157-58, 165, 173 plasmonics, 26-27 Plato, 17, 305n Pluto, 163, 166, 185, 200 positron-emission tomography (PET), 77 precognition, xvi-xviii, 272-84 and advanced waves from future, 276-81, 283 on Doomsday, 273-75 possibility of, 275-76 Prometheus, Project, 162 psychokinesis, ix, xvii, 88-102 brain and, 94-98, 101 real world and, 90-91 robots and, 95, 98-102 science and, 91-93 Ptolemy, 231 Pythagoreans, 294-95 quantum chromodynamics (QCD), 296-97 quantum theory, xii, 30, 76-77, 141, 144, 178, 186-87, 193, 206, 214, 293-97, 305rc and advanced waves from the future, 279-80, 283 computers and, 66-69, 123, 204 and future of the impossible, 285-86, 290, 293-94, 296-97, 316rc parallel universes and, 230, 235-39, 241-48 probability in, 58-60, 241-43, 245 relativity and, 221, 235-36 revolution of, 36-38, 56-58, 77, 285 robots and, 105, 109, 123, 310n-llrc Schrôdinger's cat problem and, 242-44 tachyons and, 280, 282 teleportation and, xvi, 56-69 time travel and, 222, 225, 227 radio, radio signals, radio waves, xvii, 76-77, 269, 288 antimatter and, 191, 193 extraterrestrial life and, 130-33 lasers and, 38, 40 psychokinesis and, 94, 100 space travel and, 158, 177 telepathy and, 76, 85 rail guns, 170-72, 176 INDEX ramjet fusion, 152, 159-61, 165-66 ray guns, 34, 36, 39 lasers and, 41-42, 52, 306rc Rees, Sir Martin, 197, 203-4, 221, 241 relativistic equation, 187-88 relativity, theory of, 19, 105, 187-88, 199-205, 219-21 general, xii, 202-5, 208, 220-21, 227, 232-33, 235-36, 247, 292 loopholes in, 201-4 and parallel universes, 233, 235-36, 239, 247 and quantum theory, 221, 235-36 special, 188, 199-203,219 religion, 126-27, 140-41, 147, 292 parallel universes and, 230, 241, 243-44, 250 precognition and, 272-75 teleportation and, 53-54 remote viewing, 74-76 replicators, 98-100 Republic, The (Plato), 17 Requicha, Aristides, 101 Rhine, Joseph Banks, 73-74, 309/1 Ridgway, Gary, 78 Riemann, Georg Bernhard, 232 robots, robotics, 98-125, 225-26, 310/Ï-12/Ï consciousness of, 121-22 danger of, 103-4, 122-25 emotional, 118-21, 123 merging humans with, 124-25, 311/1-12/1 nanotechnology and, 98-102 psychokinesis and, 95, 98-102 space travel and, 109, 116, 152, 168, 172, 177 see also artificial intelligence rockets, rocketry, ix-x, xii, xiv-xvii, 219 with Alcubierre drive, 204-5, 207-8, 211 antimatter and, xvii, 165, 178, 182-86, 193-94 beam weapons and, 48-49 chemical propulsion of, 156-57, 162, 164-65, 171, 182 force fields and, 3, 8-9 with ion engines, 157-58, 164-65, 177 nuclear electric, 161-62, 165, 178 nuclear pulsed, 152, 163-65 with plasma engines, 157-58, 165 with ramjet fusion engines, 152, 159-61, 165-66 specific impulses and engine efficiencies of, 164-65 see also space travel, spaceships Romalis, Michael, 82-83 Rover, Project, 161 R.U.R (Capek), 105 Russell, Bertrand, 155 Sagan, Carl, x, xvii, 130, 136, 155, 160 Sakharov, Andrei, 184-85 Savukov, Igor, 82-83 scale law, 142-44 scanning probe microscopes (SPMs), 101 scanning tunneling microscopes, 29-30, 101, 243 Schmeidler, Gertrude, 91-92 Schrôdinger, Erwin, 242, 295 teleportation and, 56-60 wave equation of, 37, 56-59, 187, 246 Schrodinger's cat problem, 242-44 Schwarzschild, Karl, 208-10 science fiction, ix-xiii, xv-xvii, 41-43, 53-56 antimatter and, 179, 182-83, 186, 190 beam weapons and, 34, 36, 38, 41-42 Death Stars and, 34-35, 43, 45, 49-50 extraterrestrial life and, 126-27, 141-42, 144-45, 147 force fields and, 5, 6-15 invisibility and, 16-18, 20-21, 23, 28, 32-33, 232, 239 parallel universes and, 229-30, 232-33, 239, 252, 257-58, 268 psychokinesis and, 88-90, 93-94, 98 robots and, 103-5, 109, 118, 123, 225-26 space travel and, 166-67, 170-71, 174-75 and speed of light, 197-98, 203-5, 207 tachyons and, 280-81 telepathy and, 70-71, 81-83, 86-87, 309/1 teleportation and, xvi, 54-56, 59-60, 63-64, 66, 69, 306/i-7« time travel and, 216, 218-19, 222, 225-26 UFOs and, 151-52 Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI), 130-33, 140, 152-53 Searle, John, 104, 108 semiconductors, semiconductor industry, 40, 101, 188 328 invisibility and, 24-28 robots and, 122-25, 312AI space travel and, 176-77 September 11, 2001, 273 Shakespeare, William, 72, 88-89, 275 SHAREY, 110 Shaw, Steve, 91 Shiva laser, 44 Slan (van Vogt), 70 slingshot effect, 169-70 smart dust, 176 Smart probe, 157, 165 Smith, Gerald, 182-83 solar sails, 152, 158-59, 165-66, 172, 176, 178, 185 solid-state lasers, 40 Somnium (Kepler), 126, 158 Soukoulis, Costas, 25 space elevators, 165-69 Space Shuttles, 184-85 space travel and, 156, 162, 164-67, 173 space-time, 287-88 foam and, 214, 246-47 parallel universes and, 235, 256, 259, 246-47, 250-51 particle accelerators and, 215-14 ripping of, 202-5, 206, 208-15, 249, 282 and speed of light, 200, 205 stretching of, 202-5, 207-8, 215, 288 time travel and, 222, 224, 227 wormholes and, 211-12, 224 space travel, spaceships, ix, xii, 109, 116, 154-78 dangers of, 172-75 extraterrestrial life and, 124, 126, 141, 145-47, 150-52 future and, 168, 177-78, 291 nanotechnology and, 152, 161-62, 175-78 rail guns and, 170-72, 176 slingshot effect and, 169-70 solar sails and, 152, 158-59, 165-66, 172, 176, 178, 185 space elevators and, 165-69 and speed of light, 159-61, 165-65, 169-70, 172, 175-77, 194, 200-205, 207-8,211,219 suspended animation and, 175-75 UFOs and, 150-52 wormholes and, xvii, 211-12, 291 see also rockets, rocketry sparticles, 257, 298 specific impulses, 164-65 Spruill, G., 216 Standard Model, 255, 257, 285 and future of the impossible, 294, 299, 502 Stanford Linear Accelerator, 215-15 Star Gate, 74-76 Star Trek, 55, 82, 118, 145, 182, 204, 229, 280 beam weapons and, 54, 58 force fields and, 5, 8-9 invisibility and, 16, 25 psychokinesis and, 89-90, 94, 98 space travel and, 170, 175 teleportation and, xvi, 55-56, 69 time travel and, 218-19 Star Wars, 12, 32, 42-43, 145 Death Stars and, 34-55, 43, 45, 49 psychokinesis and, 90, 93 and speed of light, 197, 204 Star Wars missile shield, 48-49,162,171 stealth technology, 20 string theory, xii, and future of the impossible, 290, 294, 296-99, 316/1 parallel universes and, 234-40, 299 testability of, 297-99 and theory of everything, 294, 296 strong nuclear force, 7-8, 93 superconductors, 36, 45-46 force fields and, 11-15 psychokinesis and, 97, 102 superlenses, 25 Superman, 218, 229-30 suspended animation, 173-75 symmetries, 184, 267-68 Szilard, Leo, xv tachyons, 280-83 Taylor, Ted, 163-64 Tegmark, Max, 239, 294 telepathy, 70-87, 508/i-10/i brain and, 72, 74-87, 509n ethical questions raised by, 80, 509/i-10/i lie detectors and, 77-80 as magician's trick, 71, 508/1 psychical research and, 75-74, 308/i-9/i Star Gate and, 74-76 thought projection and, 84-85 teleportation, ix, xii, xvi-xvii, 53-69 without entanglement, 64-66 EPR experiment and, 60-62 INDEX quantum theory and, xvi, 56-69 science fiction and, 54-56, 59-60, 65-64, 66, 69, 306rc-7« Teller, Edward, 48 Tempest, The (Shakespeare), 89 ten dimensions, 236, 238, 297 Terminator, The, 104, 225-26 Terrestrial Planet Finder, 138-39 Tesla, Nikola, 269-70, 315/1 Tether Challenge, 168-69 thermodynamics, laws of, 263-68, 270-71 and conservation of energy, xiv, 264-65, 267-68, 271 and entropy, 263, 265-66, 314rc-15rc and perpetual motion machines, 258, 263-66, 5Un and symmetries, 267-68 Think Like a Dinosaur (Relley), 307n Thorne, Rip, 211, 222, 237, 290-91 thought projection, 84-85 three dimensions, 32, 86, 142 time, 193, 207-9, 217-19, 246, 281, 291 Einstein on, 200-203, 207, 219, 222 movement of waves backward in, 276-81, 283 parallel universes and, 232-33, 236 ripping space and, 212-14 see also space-time Time Machine, The (Wells), 218-19 time-reversed (T-reversed) universes, 193 time travel, ix, xii, xv-xviii, 216-28, 275, 277, 281 changing the past and, 217-18 future and, 217-19, 225, 291 Hawking and, xv-xvi, 216, 220-22, 227 paradoxes of, 224-27 as physicists' playground, 220-24 Tsiolkovsky, Ronstantin E., 154, 166 Turing, Alan, 106-8, 123 Turing machines, 83-84, 106, 177 Twain, Mark, 16, 179, 218 2001, 109, 147, 152 uncertainty principle, 30, 55-56, 58, 109, 122-23, 206, 245, 306rc-7rc unidentified flying objects (UFOs), 147-52 universal translators, 81-82 universe, universes, 248-53 antimatter and, 186, 190-93 baby, 214, 246, 250-53 collisions of, 233, 240, 248, 291 contact between, 248-49 end of, 249, 291-94 evolution of, 252-53 and future of the impossible, 286-87, 289-94, 302 spinning of, 223, 247 see also parallel universes Urey, Harold, 129 van Vogt, A E., 70 variable specific impulse magnetoplasma rocket (VASIMR), 158, 165 Vela satellite, 50-51 Venus, 148, 185-86, 200, 274 Verne, Jules, x, xii-xiii, xvi, 171 Vilenkin, Alexander, 299 Visser, Matthew, 203, 211 von Neumann probes, 177 Wakefield tabletop accelerators, 214-15 Ward, Peter, 136 War of the Worlds (Wells), 36, 127 water, 14, 187 extraterrestrial life and, 128-29, 133-34, 142 invisibility and, 19-20, 22 weak nuclear force, 7-8, 93 Weinberg, Steve, 244, 297, 303 Wells, H G., xv, 36, 89, 127 invisibility and, 16-18, 33, 232, 239 parallel universes and, 232-33, 239 time travel and, 216, 218-19 Wheeler, John, 70, 245, 277, 279, 286 When Worlds Collide, 170 Wigner, Eugene, 243-44 Wilczek, Frank, 244 WMAP satellite, 240, 249, 251, 270, 291 Wonderful Visit, The (Wells), 232-33 World Set Free, The (Wells), xv World War II, xiv, 36, 107, 244, 272 wormholes, xvii, 249, 268, 291 black holes and, 209-11, 223 problems facing, 211-12 and speed of light, 203-4, 206, 208-11,214-15, 224 time travel and, 222-28 transversable, 211, 224 Yang, C N., 191 ... of the crowning achievements of physics has been the isolation and identification of the four forces that rule the universe All of them can be described in the language of fields introduced by. .. what they mean by "impossible. " As Sir William Osier once said, "The philosophies of one age have be­ come the absurdities of the next, and the foolishness of yesterday has become the wisdom of. .. force holds the nucleus of the atom to­ gether The energy of the sun and the stars originates from the nuclear force, which is responsible for lighting up the universe The problem is that the nuclear