time travel : NPR

Understanding the refugee experience, through a time-traveling British colonizer

NPR

Code Switch

Understanding the refugee experience, through a time-traveling British colonizer

May 22, 2024 • This week Code Switch digs into The Ministry of Time, a new book that author Kailene Bradley describes as a "romance about imperialism." It focuses on real-life Victorian explorer Graham Gore, who died on a doomed Arctic expedition in 1847. But in this novel, time travel is possible and Gore is brought to the 21st century where he's confronted with the fact that everyone he's ever known is dead, that the British Empire has collapsed, and that perhaps he was a colonizer.

Understanding the refugee experience, through a time-traveling British colonizer

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Paradox-Free Time Travel Is Theoretically Possible, Researchers Say

A dog dressed as Marty McFly from Back to the Future attends the Tompkins Square Halloween Dog Parade in 2015. New research says time travel might be possible without the problems McFly encountered. Timothy A. Clary/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

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Timothy A. Clary/AFP via Getty Images

Science

Paradox-Free Time Travel Is Theoretically Possible, Researchers Say

September 27, 2020 • In a peer-reviewed journal article, University of Queensland physicists say time is essentially self-healing. Changes in the past wouldn't necessarily cause a universe-ending paradox. Phew.

Letters Serve To Bond Time-Traveling Rivals In 'This Is How You Lose The Time War'

This Is How You Lose The Time War, By Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone NPR hide caption

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Review

Book Reviews

Letters Serve To Bond Time-Traveling Rivals In 'This Is How You Lose The Time War'

July 18, 2019 • Rather than the time travel or war, the thrill of Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone's book becomes the connection between two lonely professional killers with the ability to inscribe letters on lava.

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Opinion

13.7: Cosmos And Culture

Time Travel With Your Fridge?

April 3, 2018 • If the history of thermodynamics can teach us anything, it is that modest entropy reversals have not taken us back in time at all. But it is more fun to think otherwise, says guest Jimena Canales.

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13.7: Cosmos And Culture

Can We Change The Past?

February 21, 2018 • Putting humans and consciousness aside, at the level of quantum particles, Wheeler's delayed-choice experiments show that actions in the present can influence the past, says physicist Marcelo Gleiser.

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Opinion

13.7: Cosmos And Culture

Why We're All Trapped In 3-D

June 7, 2016 • We can't picture directions other than front, back, up, down, left and right — but who's to say there can't be a forth or fifth dimension? Astrophysicist Adam Frank says some scientists are looking.

Why We're All Trapped In 3-D

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'Back To The Future Part 2': Designing A Future For 30 Years Ago

In Back to the Future Part II, Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) slips on his Nike sneakers and rides a Mattel hoverboard in front of a Texaco gas station. Courtesy of The Kobal Collection hide caption

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Courtesy of The Kobal Collection

Movies

'Back To The Future Part 2': Designing A Future For 30 Years Ago

October 20, 2015 • In the classic movie Back to the Future Part II, Michael J. Fox's Marty McFly travels forward 30 years to Oct. 21, 2015. Is life like the movie predicted? Maybe. But was it ever supposed to be?

'Back To The Future Part 2': Designing A Future For 30 Years Ago

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Opinion

13.7: Cosmos And Culture

Black Holes And Our Cosmic Future

December 17, 2014 • Commentator Marcelo Gleiser says that while he enjoys sci-fi speculation like most people, he also thinks there is a chance, in viewing recent films, to learn something about ourselves and our planet.

The Christmas Now: How To Be The Center Of The Universe

Step back in time: This is what 100 million years ago looked like, in a galaxy far, far away. ESO hide caption

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ESO

Opinion

13.7: Cosmos And Culture

The Christmas Now: How To Be The Center Of The Universe

December 24, 2013 • Ebenezer Scrooge was famously visited by three ghosts who woke him to the wonders of the life right before his eyes. We can also let the past, present and future converge on us to the same effect. All we have to do is step outside and let the night sky become a time machine.

The Christmas Now: How To Be The Center Of The Universe

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The Other 10 Most Important Questions In Science

Oceans, and the innards of Earth itself, are the final frontiers of our planet. Expect amazing discoveries as explorers document more and more of this unseen realm. Hulton Archive/Getty Images hide caption

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September 18, 2013 • Science may seem advanced, may even be advanced, but that doesn't mean there aren't still plenty of questions left to ask and answer. A new book catalogs 20 of the biggest questions outstanding. Physicist Marcelo Gleiser looks the list over and ponders some of the subjects keeping scientists awake at night.