A hard stare
Can telepathy be the explanation for that strange feeling that someone is staring?
Related programme
Anders Hansson, a theoretical physicist, explores the potential of the warp drive for powering spacecraft in the future
Anders says that about two years ago it was thought that it needed more power or energy than there is in the known universe, "but in those two years we have already made enough progress that we now know we can do it with just the power that is in Jupiter."
Astronomers have believed since 1998 that the universe is not slowing down but actually going faster. The question is: where does that energy come from?
"That is precisely the kind of force we need to actually make the act against gravity," says Anders. "So we now know that there could be a physical force that could do the work for us."
There is a very close connection between fiction and science fiction and development in theoretical physics, according to Anders:
"I think it helps enormously because it conceptualises something. So if you read or watch a science fiction film you actually see a piece of hardware - it’s not just a theory or mathematics. You have to be careful - there is a fine line between what is, in principle, possible and what is just wishful thinking. You have to avoid the wishful thinking and stay within at least the bounds of known science. Maybe there is one advantage in theoretical physics because it is always on the border between what is possible and not possible, so you tend to like or at least have an interest in speculative things like science fiction."
Further Reading
2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C Clarke (Polaris Productions Inc, 1968)
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Content last updated: 03/07/2006
