Time travel is a fascinating topic. It's a subject that's inspired movies, books, scientific theories and research. In the pursuit of this research, an astrophysicist from Michigan Technological University decided to conduct a study to uncover evidence of time travel.
Yes, he wanted time travel proof. And the obvious place to look for evidence? The Internet.
Professor Robert Nemiroff enlisted the help of a graduate student to search the Internet for potential time travel proof--clues left by future humans.
"The Internet is essentially a vast database, and I thought that if time travelers were here, their existence would have already come out in some other way," Prof. Nemiroff said. "Maybe by posting winning lottery numbers before they were selected."
Like a lot of fun hypothetical ideas, this one started during a poker game.
"We had a whimsical little discussion about this," Nemiroff revealed.
That whimsical discussion turned into a study titled, "Searching the Internet for evidence of time travelers," published by Nemiroff and graduate student Teresa Wilson.
The method was relatively simple. Nemiroff and Wilson chose two specific search terms that were related to recent events: "Pope Francis" and "Comet ISON." The pair then scoured the Internet for information that included these terms before the terms came into existence. In theory, clues of time travel would be apparent if the information "should not have been known at the time it was posted."
Platforms for the study included Twitter, Google, Bing and Facebook. The results?
"In our limited search we turned up nothing," Nemiroff said. "I didn't really think we would."
Well, there was one mention of Pope Francis before his papacy actually began. But the researchers said it was an accident, not time travel proof.
However, Nemiroff and Wilson point out that a lack of clues doesn't mean time travel isn't possible.
"Although these negative results do not disprove time travel, given the great reach of the Internet, this search is perhaps the most comprehensive to date," the study's abstract reads.
The topic of time travel remains as elusive as ever. But if there's a silver lining to this study, it's that it wasn't conducted using any grant funds.
The results will be presented at the American Astronomical Society meeting on Tuesday.
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