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Breaking the Time Barrier: The Race to Build the First Time Machine
IT WAS ONLY A MATTER OF TIME....
Once widely considered an impossibility--the stuff of science fiction novels--time travel may finally be achieved in the twenty-first century. In Breaking the Time Barrier, bestselling author Jenny Randles reveals the nature of recent, breakthrough experiments that are turning this fantasy into reality.
The race to build the first time machine is a fascinating saga that began about a century ago, when scientists such as Marconi and Edison and Einstein carried out research aimed at producing a working time machine. Today, physicists are conducting remarkable experiments that involve slowing the passage of information, freezing light, and breaking the speed of light--and thus the time barrier. In the 1960s we had the "space race." Today, there is a "time race" involving an underground community of working scientists who are increasingly convinced that a time machine of some sort is finally possible.
Here, Randles explores the often riveting motives of the people involved in this quest (including a host of sincere, if sometimes misguided amateurs), the consequences for society should time travel become a part of everyday life, and what evidence might indicate that it has already become reality. For, if time travel is going to happen--and some Russian scientists already claim to have achieved it in a lab--then its effects may already be apparent.
288 pages, Paperback
First published April 5, 2005
10 people are currently reading
135 people want to read
About the author
Jenny Randles
66 books31 followersBritish author and former director of investigations with the British UFO Research Association (BUFORA), serving in that role from 1982 through to 1994.
Randles specializes in writing books on UFOs and paranormal phenomena. To date 50 of these have been published, ranging from her first UFOs: A British Viewpoint (1979) to Breaking the Time Barrier: The race to build the first time machine (2005). Subjects covered include crop circles, ESP, life after death, time anomalies and spontaneous human combustion.
Randles specializes in writing books on UFOs and paranormal phenomena. To date 50 of these have been published, ranging from her first UFOs: A British Viewpoint (1979) to Breaking the Time Barrier: The race to build the first time machine (2005). Subjects covered include crop circles, ESP, life after death, time anomalies and spontaneous human combustion.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
January 16, 2019
Time travel – impractical dream or viable future possibility? Obviously, the idea forms a rich imaginative seam, which writers have long enjoyed mining (indeed, I'm toying with the idea of mining it myself), but is it actually feasible? It's not for me to say – I'm not from a scientific background – but I admit to a glimmering hope that it might be.
For a non-scientist who wants to know something about the topic, Randles' book is probably a good place to start. There's a smattering of science fiction here, but also a good amount of science fact. The author takes us through the different possibilities that might be open to would-be time travellers, and does it without boggling the lay brain too much, which is quite an achievement. She also seems hopeful that time travel may one day be within our reach, but doesn't shy away from its many problems. (If some future civilisation has achieved time travel, where are the time tourists? What would happen if you went back in time and killed your father before you'd been conceived?)
Come what may, the very idea of time travel will probably continue to exert its strange pull on the human mind, and fiction writers will probably continue to play with it. Perhaps it's because we tend to see ourselves as the victims of time: the past is gone, unreachable, and the future unknowable. The sense of being trapped by time might be at the root of much of the melancholy and sense of loss and limitation that is intrinsic to the human condition, but may also be the source of much of our art, culture and science.
(By the way... if any future time traveller happens to read this, is there any chance you could hop back to 2016 and give me a little temporal lift? I have my reasons, and they're not just to do with curiosity. Thanks awfully!)
For a non-scientist who wants to know something about the topic, Randles' book is probably a good place to start. There's a smattering of science fiction here, but also a good amount of science fact. The author takes us through the different possibilities that might be open to would-be time travellers, and does it without boggling the lay brain too much, which is quite an achievement. She also seems hopeful that time travel may one day be within our reach, but doesn't shy away from its many problems. (If some future civilisation has achieved time travel, where are the time tourists? What would happen if you went back in time and killed your father before you'd been conceived?)
Come what may, the very idea of time travel will probably continue to exert its strange pull on the human mind, and fiction writers will probably continue to play with it. Perhaps it's because we tend to see ourselves as the victims of time: the past is gone, unreachable, and the future unknowable. The sense of being trapped by time might be at the root of much of the melancholy and sense of loss and limitation that is intrinsic to the human condition, but may also be the source of much of our art, culture and science.
(By the way... if any future time traveller happens to read this, is there any chance you could hop back to 2016 and give me a little temporal lift? I have my reasons, and they're not just to do with curiosity. Thanks awfully!)
June 14, 2008
Not the most exciting read but it was interesting to learn about our understanding of and the feasibility of time travel in a chronological format. This isn't science fiction--these are actual theories from top physicists.
I enjoyed the concepts proposed but only 2 stars because I suppose it's difficult to make this topic an intoxicating read.
I enjoyed the concepts proposed but only 2 stars because I suppose it's difficult to make this topic an intoxicating read.
August 18, 2018
A little dry and boring at times... too much so for such an interesting subject.
January 6, 2023
A solid overview, if a bit dry and quick to go over things that probably could’ve done with more elaboration.
October 28, 2012
This book is a page-turner for anyone interested in physics, relativity, the nature of space and time, the wonders of modern science... etc. The author tells a compelling story about the development of various ideas, concepts and even devices that can/will/have (!) enabled time travel. My idea of time travel was restricted to relativistic time-dilation before I read this book. It was fascinating to read about so many other possibilities and avenues for time travel brought to light by more recent developments in the world of theoretical physics - and even purely accidental discoveries!
All in all, a very well-written book. I would definitely recommend it.
All in all, a very well-written book. I would definitely recommend it.
July 17, 2011
Not a great book, but interesting and informative. A valiant attempt was made to create a history of time travel where none exists. Several post 2000 episodes were presented which, for me, bordered on conspiracy theory. Nevertheless, I found the book entertaining at best, and at worst -- a waste of time.
March 27, 2011
This is like every time travel theory you ever knew, plus a whole bunch more you never even suspected. A bible for anyone into the subject!
August 5, 2011
A very good introduction based on discovery and technology timeline on where we are and visions of the future.
March 24, 2016
Learned a lot of cool stuff. Some of it was over my head or beyond my scope of thought, but the concepts and applied sciences are simply amazing
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews