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If only you could bend space-time to hide your shame…

Tory Shepherd

by Tory Shepherd

05 Jan 05:55am

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Filed under: Physics, Science, Space, Time

112 comments

The God Particle is so 2011. This year’s sexy science story is a hole in time. Yes, it’s a sci-fi nerdtopia complete with the opportunity to use the compound adjective “space-time” in ordinary conversation.


According to science journal Nature, scientists have managed to create a ‘time cloak’. Using a time-lens that breaks light up they can make an event temporarily undetectable.

Sure, it’s only on the picosecond scale, but still: Phwoar!

The researchers themselves – a group from New York’s Cornell University – write:

In summary, we have presented the first experimental demonstration of temporal cloaking that successfully hides an event from a probe beam in the time domain.

Beam me up.  Here’s a diagram that starts to make sense of it all (sort of):

STLs? Oh yeah, I get it now… Pic: Nature

The details are predictably dastardly - some recent scientific developments have shown it’s possible to create a hole in space. These guys have created a hole in time for about 40 trillionths of a second (40 picoseconds). Apparently it’s when you can bring the two bits of magic together and create “full spatio-temporal cloaking” that the really cool shit starts to hit the futuristic fan.

So let’s jump shamelessly ahead of ourselves into the realm of improbability and imagine what you could do if you could cloak a moment in your life. The Punch Team have laid themselves just a little bit bare for you here. Please share below the moment you wish was lost forever in the space-time continuum.

Tory M writes:
I would have liked to have cloaked most of the period I was a copy kid on the Daily Telegraph, when I seemed to humiliate myself daily. I spilled coffee all over the then-editor of The Australian, who was very nice about it. He’s a very nice man.

I lost what was then quite a bit of cash belonging to the editor-in-chief of the Telegraph. He was also very understanding.

I got into the passenger seat of a car belonging to some poor man called Barry because I thought it was a news car. It wasn’t – he was just waiting outside the building to pick up his wife. But worse still, I thought he was punking me and refused to get out. Then when the real news car pulled up, also driven by a Barry, I was too embarrassed to get in. Yep, a time cloak would have come in very handy during that period of my career.

Tory S writes:
High school graduation ceremony. Adelaide Town Hall. Hundreds of people in the audience. Boring speech from principal, followed by the solemn toll of names, as the Year 12s rose and got their certificates. I was a Yr 11, up there for some precocious award. We were sitting on long plank seats. One by one the Yr 12s crossed the floor, smiled for the camera, walked off stage.

Until I was the only one left sitting on the end of a very long bench. It started to tip, and I did a wild jerk of the legs to trying to counterbalance it. I went over with an almighty crash, tipped over backwards with my legs flung up in the air. Then I flailed around for a bit, disoriented by the sudden lack of vision cause by my long skirt being wrapped around my head.  Thank God for private school regulation nanna knickers. I don’t remember how I got up and away, but I do remember the principal intoning: “That could only be Tory Shepherd”.

Lucy writes:
People say it’s polite to meet your neighbours when you first move into a new street. Usually this does not involve crashing your car into their house. Unfortunately, that’s what I did, just last year. New to the neighbourhood and a very steep cul de sac, I (thought I had) parked on the crest of the hill. Then I opened the car door, only to feel the rest of the car rolling slowly at first, before taking a rapid descent through the neighbour’s fence, and stopping (thankfully) at the very front wall of their house. 

All the while i could see my life flash before my eyes. In no time at all, the entire street had gathered outside their houses to watch. Closely followed by the people in the house who rushed out screaming at me. Let’s just say it was very hard to get out of the car to say: “Just doing the neighbourly thing and saying hello”. A time cloak would have saved me the next six months of walking the long way home.

Daniel writes:
1) Anytime anyone from The Punch team gets up at karaoke. With exceptions.

2) I was at a “conference” of student magazine editors last year. People who know a lot about words. An expert in copyright was giving a talk, and in an effort to try and get the attention of an attractive female on the other side of the room who was engrossed in the lecture, I figured I’d take the opportunity to ask the speaker an intelligent question and look good while I was at it.

“What about satire?” I asked. A pretty good question, I thought. Except I pronounced it sa-TYRE. Everybody laughed. And everybody laughed at me again when I all-too-loudly asked the person next to me: “Well, how do actually pronounce it then?”

I can’t say the word, alright? Everyone I was with mocked me relentlessly for the next six months. I don’t think the girl across the room ever talked to me.

I didn’t run my car into a house, though…

We kept it clean because, well, our real names are attached. But you guys don’t have to, much…

@ToryShepherd

Most commented

431Australia, you have nothing to fear but fear itself
390There's no one Thomson won't burn to save his skin
336Animal experiments won't cure me from cancer
313Thomson didn't answer the question everyone is asking
266Who murdered the Arts degree?
246A big day for Thomson, who thus far is guilty of nothing...
231South Australia. It's the middle bottom bit.
231Craig Thomson speaks. Meanwhile, in Australia...

112 comments

Show oldest | newest first

    • Robert S McCormick says:

      05:41am | 05/01/12

      Tory,
      Who gives a toss?
      Why do these so-called scientists waste so much time on such nonsense.
      This pointless ‘research’ probably cost billions!
      Why don’t they get their priorities right & concentrate on finding permanent cures for MS, MND, Cancer, HIV, etc.?
      In other words, Why don’t they do soemthing which is actually useful & of real benefit to the world?

      Reply

    • KH says:

      06:09am | 05/01/12

      These are physicists, not medical scientists.  Proactive science is just as important as reacive science, btw.

    • Erick says:

      06:30am | 05/01/12

      @Robert S McCormick - That’s a silly comment. Most of the advanced technology which keeps us well-fed, safe from predators and free of many diseases was spawned by basic research like this. That includes the computer you used to post your nonsense!

      “This pointless ‘research’ probably cost billions!”

      Billions? You just made that up, didn’t you?

    • ronny jonny says:

      06:34am | 05/01/12

      Robert,
      I think at some point in history the same was probably said about any scientific endeavour. Gallieo, with all that useless stargazing… Darwin, fiddling about with dead birds… Einstien all that nerdy calculating… Pasteur wasting his time trying figure out what germs were….Florey and his stupid mould…. and I could go on and on and on but you get the point right?

    • Horse says:

      06:47am | 05/01/12

      Scientist working in or on physics are often not trained or experienced in biological or medical research, R S McC.

    • Semi Concerned Citizen says:

      07:02am | 05/01/12

      Robert,

      Imagine we cured all the diseases and ailments of mankind. We would have some hard calls to make on breeding and length of life.

    • yourname says:

      07:19am | 05/01/12

      1. Troll.

      2. On the off-chance that you really are that thick: if you gotta ask the question, you ain’t never going to understand the answer.

      3. Straight answer—I give a toss; they are real scientists; they are not wasting time; it is not nonsense; it is not pointless; billions are peanuts; their priorities are right; they are not medical scientists; it is useful; it is of real benefit to the world. Why? Because we are finding out about the nature of our home, the universe, and how it works, and a great many people—those whose minds are not moribund—find this an infinitely worthy endeavour; “pure” research is enough on its own, but does also lead to practical applications (e.g., nuclear medicine), because we are finding out about how the universe works; when a particular research begins, it is not always clear whether it is “pure” or “applied” anyway—this becomes apparent later; if we were to wait until we had solved all the practical problems of human existence, including medical problems, before answering other questions, then no pure research of any kind would ever be done. If these things don’t matter to you, then either you were born a mental pygmy, or your education has been sadly stunted, or you are wasting your life.

      Human equality is a myth. If you and one of these scientists were hanging from a cliff and I could only save one—all other things being equal ...

      Now get lost.

    • Troy Flynn says:

      07:30am | 05/01/12

      and Semi Concerned Citizen, let’s not forget all the money to be made in treating diseases not curing them permanently.

    • Bob Higgs says:

      07:34am | 05/01/12

      Back under your rock Robert and don’t take your computer or your internet connection with you - you wouldn’t want to benefit from all that pointless research

    • HappyCynic says:

      07:40am | 05/01/12

      @Robert

      To paraphrase Isaac Asimov: “The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds the most discoveries, is not ‘Eureka!’ (I found it!) but ‘That’s funny’”. 

      A cure for cancer or AIDS or MS or whatever of the world’s ills ails us might be lurking in one of these experiments one day and if we close our eyes to all the sciences except those that currently ‘benefit’ mankind then we’ll miss it.

      This is why the kind of attitude you display is the height of stupidity and ignorance.

    • ShamWow says:

      07:50am | 05/01/12

      100% Troll

    • TChong says:

      08:07am | 05/01/12

      Troy
      The alledged conspiracies -ie “They” have discovered a “cure” for cancer , but wont tell us etc dont work.
      The profit motive alone,will ensure any break thru quickly would be sold , for a lot of money.
      In the world of Big Pharma, winner takes all.

    • Lasa Bailey says:

      08:07am | 05/01/12

      Robert, these people are dreamers without them we would not have cars, or planes, or even the wheel, we would still be in the stone age, it’s minds like these who are able to make that leap of faith to the supposed undoable that allows the human race to move forward, even the A bomb was created to benefit man, not destroy him.

    • Bob Stewart, the Elder says:

      08:07am | 05/01/12

      It all exists. It just takes someone to find it. Look what has happened after someone invented the wheel!

    • George of the Jungle says:

      08:41am | 05/01/12

      The theory of relativity looked completely useless when Einstein discovered it. Who cares about how space-time bends through the universe, right?

      It turned out to be very useful. Without our understanding of relativity, GPS wouldn’t work. Every app that uses your current location and every sat nav in every car uses GPS and so uses the theory of relativity.

      Pretty useful, right?

    • ZSRenn says:

      09:40am | 05/01/12

      Could I cloak the time it took me to read Robert S McCormick’s reply and the ensuing answers. Come on people can’t you see Tory is taking the piss,

      Funny read Tory thanks.

    • iansand says:

      11:15am | 05/01/12

      Cue oft repeated story:

      A long time ago, when I was so high and much nicer, I remember reading an article in a popular science magazine.  Some boffin somewhere had pulled a pretty neat trick with light, making it line up coherently.  The article said that everyone knew it was a neat trick, but no one could work out whether it could ever have any practical application.  They seemed to think that it would end up as a footnote to technology.

      The boffin made up an acronym.  He called his toy a LASER.

    • Mark says:

      11:16am | 05/01/12

      “Why don’t they get their priorities right & concentrate on finding permanent cures for MS, MND, Cancer, HIV, etc.?”
      Where’s the money in that? They already get more than enough through treatment meds for the listed diseases that it has actually become as bad business decision to research a cure. As soon as one is on the horizon (through non-profit research organisations) (actually, is there one?), me thinks big pharma will buy the patent and bury it as far in their archives as humanly possible.

    • Condor says:

      11:45am | 05/01/12

      Robert, maybe we could get a cloak for near-sighted fools such as yourself.

    • Phil S says:

      12:01pm | 05/01/12

      100% troll. Unfortunately many people honestly have this opinion.

      So for the benefit of the uninformed…

      Physicists are usually the ones who pioneer new observational technologies, before they are mass produced by commercial companies. This is especially true in any field in physics which deals with optics. Without the new technologies physicists develop, the progress biologists and chemists have made today would not be possible. Physicists made the femtosecond laser. Chemists (and even some biologists) now use them. NMR? MRI? Physicists were the ones who pioneered those technologies.

      So we need research like this if we want to successfully research the areas mentioned in the original post.

      Most experimental PhD’s in physics require the development of a new technology, or experimental system/apparatus. And I should know, since I’m doing one right now…

    • Seth Brundle says:

      12:16pm | 05/01/12

      The last thing we need is science to find a way for MORE people to live LONGER.

    • Rick of the Dustbowl says:

      02:11pm | 05/01/12

      I don’t think you understand the principle involved here, it is not possible to cloak something that has already happened, only something that will happen in the future but how would you know what to cloak if it hasn’t happened yet?

    • Steve says:

      03:23pm | 05/01/12

      Gotta laugh at comments like this is in this country, well, the only other option would be to cry. WA Govt, just spent $500M building a tennis centre. There’s a projected $1.3B (B!) sports stadium coming. That’s just WA, not even the entire country. Why doesn’t anyone complain about money being wasted there? This world is built on science not people playing games on lawns.

    • wearestardust says:

      03:41pm | 05/01/12

      “of real benefit to the world”

      As opposed to, say, posting on the internet to say “this bores me therefore it should neither have been written nor now be read by anyone else”?

    • jf says:

      06:42am | 06/01/12

      TChong says: 09:07am | 05/01/12

      “In the world of Big Pharma, winner takes all.”

      At the moment those people investing their money in medical research are hoping for a return for the significant risk they are taking.

      I’m sure that significant donations by you and all the other conspiracy idiots will be warmly welcomed by the researchers.

    • ZSRenn says:

      07:48am | 06/01/12

      @ iansand judging by your comments I would not have thought of you as one who would get so high.

    • Mahhrat says:

      06:35am | 05/01/12

      Go boffins!! Cloaking fields!! Gettin’ all Romulan on yer asses!!

      To the pooish killjoy above, can you imagine you useful a cloak will be when marauding aliens show up?

      Reply

    • St. Michael says:

      11:31am | 05/01/12

      In all seriousness, I wonder if this isn’t a big reason we haven’t detected anything under the SETI program?

      One of the theories behind the (so far) silence of the rest of the universe is that intelligent extraterrestrial lifeforms have learned how to cloak their civilisations’ EM transmissions.  Radio and optical astronomy both depend on picking up electromagnetic frequencies.  If you have something that defeats an EM frequency, or indeed light in the visible range, civilisations listening for your transmissions won’t “see” or “hear” you.

      We’re a species that’s only had the capacity to broadcast in the electromagnetic spectrum for about 80 years or so.  That’s baby steps compared to the rest of the universe; humans have been around for 4.5 million years, but the universe has been around for billions.  That scale alone suggests we’re very new to the galactic scene, that if there are other civilisations out there they’d have to be much older than ours.  So discovering the “cloak” so comparatively early in our technological history would suggest that it’s a fairly elementary thing for a civilisation to develop.

      Given the age of the universe, most astronomers and astrophysicists in this area seem to think the odds are that other civilisations out there are much older and presumably a lot further down the technological road.  If that’s so, you could make a reasonably safe presumption they’ve developed the technology required to expand a “cloak field” out a lot further, maybe even to conceal planets or even entire stars, for indefinite periods of time.

    • GWC says:

      12:24pm | 05/01/12

      St Michael,

      current thinking is that its extremely unlikely that two sentient races would ever be near enough to meet or even be living in the same period. Its possible that hundreds of sentient races could have evolved in the Milky Way, and yet not have been within millions of years of each others existence.


      Because of the sheer age of even just our galaxy its nearly (theoretically) impossible for two races to meet. See wiki on the Fermi paradox and Drake equation for more.

      Of course it only takes one flying saucer to land tomorrow to destroy all that well intentioned maths!

    • Mahhrat says:

      12:47pm | 05/01/12

      @GWC:  I have heard that and I agree.  The chances of two comparably-developed alien races evolving in the way many sci-fi writers would like is really, really slim. 


      Still, it’s nice to dream.  I’d hate to think that we’re it.

    • yourname says:

      02:26pm | 05/01/12

      @GWC As probability, your thinking is quite sound.

    • Pickles... The Drummer says:

      02:56pm | 06/01/12

      Is this the start of No-Rooms and No-Ships from the Dune series? Spaces hidden from all external detection including prescience?

    • RBarron says:

      06:40am | 05/01/12

      1The 2010 Election results.
      2 Gillard On TV telling everyone that there wouldn’t be on carbon tax if we voted for her..
      Becuase them stupid people that voted for on that belief wouldn’t of.
      And there for we wouldn’t have the carbon tax that we got that we weren’t going to get if people voted for her.
      3 Gillard’s Birth.
      4 Gillard Belief or lack of belief.
      5 2010 election result again.

      Reply

    • Eric The Red says:

      07:42am | 05/01/12

      @ RBarron, Does that mean you are a fan of Julia Gillard??? Love Hate relationship. You’ll get over it.

    • Rob G says:

      08:35am | 05/01/12

      And John Howard’s “We Will Never, Ever, Ever have a GST” statement too, while we’re at it. That’s cost us a hell of a lot more than the “carbon tax”. What short memories we all have.

    • Peter says:

      09:33am | 05/01/12

      Rob G, I see your another fool who just doesn’t get that unlike Gillard, Howard took his GST to an election in 1998 which he won.

    • TimB says:

      09:33am | 05/01/12

      And then Howard said ‘You know what? We will have a GST.”

      Then he called an election, and the electorate voted for him anyway.

      What stupid memories some people have.

    • Mr Smith says:

      09:52am | 05/01/12

      Julia Gillard is a useless waste of space. She ia a liar and will betray anyone for power. Anyone who wants to compare Gillard to Howard is a moron. Start by comparing Gillard to a wastepaper basket than work your way up!

    • James1 says:

      09:53am | 05/01/12

      He did lose the popular vote at that election though, Tim, yet claimed a mandate nonetheless.

      Don’t get me wrong - I think it was a positive reform that needed to be done despite widespread public opposition and the lack of an effective electoral mandate.  Sometimes the voting public is not intellectually equipped to understand its best interests.

    • Peter says:

      10:11am | 05/01/12

      James1, Agree wholeheartedly with you comment about the voting public not being intelectually equipped to understand it’s best interests. That’s how Labor Governments get elected. smile

    • TimB says:

      10:44am | 05/01/12

      I understand where you’re coming from James. There’s a fine line between the approach of governing for the good of the people (whether they like it or not), and governing based purely on the will of the people.

      IMO a mark of a great leader is how well they do in walking that fine line, and I think Howard did a pretty good job with that. Gillard so far though… not so much.

      Say what you will about the ‘98 election result, at least Howard still took his change of policy to an election. Gillard refuses to do even that much despite her 2010 election promise to develop a consensus. That puts her on the authoritarian side of that fine line as far as I’m concerned.

      No matter how much the left squawk ‘Never ever GST’,  Gillard’s actions will *never* equate to Howard’s.

    • James1 says:

      10:45am | 05/01/12

      Peter, in 2007, yes.  In 2010, the final result was determined by just two Australians without the intellectual equipment to understand their interests.

    • James1 says:

      12:42pm | 05/01/12

      I disagree Tim.  Even if she took the Carbon Tax to an election and won, it would still be bad policy.  Even though Howard took the GST to an election and didn’t really win a mandate, it was still good policy.

      To me it’s not so much about which side of the authoritarian line one falls on, its whether or not the policy is any good.  Menzies, and to a lesser extent Howard, could be quite authoritarian when they needed to be, but they got the job done and that is what counts.  I would put Hawke, Chifley, Curtin and Deakin in that category as well.  But then, I am a big fan of Plato’s Republic, so I would say that.

    • RobJ says:

      01:36pm | 05/01/12

      “Peter says: 10:33am | 05/01/12
      Rob G, I see your another fool “

      Gillard should just say; “it wasn’t a core promise” what could the Tories say then?

      “No matter how much the left squawk ‘Never ever GST’,  Gillard’s actions will *never* equate to Howard’s.”

      Ooooh, I don’t know about that, she’s being pretty good at using asylum seekers as a political football, i’d contend that she even beat Abbott….. in the race to the bottom.

    • Rubens Camejo says:

      03:49pm | 05/01/12

      “wouldn’t of.”..??? What on earth is “wouldn’t of.”? I think you might have meant WOULDN’T HAVE or even; would not have. On your theory, however much you think your proposition is a fact, it remains an improbable theory, the facts are that the Labor government was ready for a fall in 2010 but there were not enough people ready to hand the keys of the lodge to TA. That I fear, for your sake, is that one chance in his life that he will have had of attaining them. And that, can only be a good thing for the nation.

    • Courtney says:

      08:16am | 06/01/12

      Don’t forget the puppet strings hanging from Julia Gillard’s body (especially her mouth)

    • Rick of the Dustbowl says:

      02:47pm | 06/01/12

      John Howards never never statement,  I think the Liberals are already using a cloaking device at least on theselves.

    • Rick of the Dustbowl says:

      03:03pm | 06/01/12

      Oh shit I left the M out of themselves now Ruben will give me a spelling lesson

    • Questions says:

      06:51am | 05/01/12

      I dont understand how this can ever work outside a lab.

      You’d need a cloaking device that obscured the event from *all* observers, while simultaneously making all other events visible to all of them.

      I mean in a lab where a thing can be isolated and the beams can be directed without residual scatter and conveniently reformed by a second lens, sure, you can say “time” never occurred to that event because nobody did or ever will see it… but how do you do it when light is coming from all angles? And if you could build a 360-degree lens that blocked all events - what happens inside that lens? If you generate a quantum probability of zero for yourself… then what? How do they in fact know the event even happened, if their proof of concept is that they didn’t see it happening?

      And then… say you had 1 lens obscuring you to a forward observer from direct light… the light bends around and they dont see you… what of light coming from behind you? Wouldn’t that actually push your image back through the lens and make you appear to the observer as some kind of circular kaleidescope version of yourself?

      physics person ploise exploin…

      Reply

    • The_Pseudonym says:

      07:25am | 05/01/12

      ‘You’d need a cloaking device that obscured the event from *all* observers’  I have an example, a Carbon Tax brought in under the guise of ‘we have to act’.

    • Kebabpete says:

      08:47am | 05/01/12

      A-ha, the old “If a tree falls in the forest and no one heard or saw it, did it really fall?” theory.

    • Tracker says:

      09:40am | 05/01/12

      Light is a band or set of frequencies just like your radio and TV. Filters can be high pass, low pass, band stop or band pass (or a combination of either) so construct a filter to filter that particular frequency or set of frequencies whilst allowing others to pass on their merry way doing whatever they do. Time slows down as you approach the speed of light so if you are playing around at the top end of the light scale and it is within the filtered bandwidth you can achieve several tasks or events which are not relative to real time but anything outside the filter will not see it and when the result (output) is processed by the event handler it gives the appearance that the filtered event never happened (though it did). Great potential for masked or high security data applications. Now replace the event handler with a very slow device such as the human brain and place the filter in the real world and any actions or events happening within the filter won’t be processed irrespective of what direction the action or event comes from. We (and the majority of electronic devices on the market) simply won’t see it but we will see the end result or output giving the appearance time had temporarily stopped… or was cloaked. I think this is what is happening now with our Government because I see the end result but can never figure out what the hell they done to cause it.

    • patsy says:

      12:58pm | 05/01/12

      @Questions-You must’ve read Stephen Hawkings’ “A Brief History of Time” and understood it. I prefer “The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy” myself.

    • Mahhrat says:

      02:12pm | 05/01/12

      ” If you generate a quantum probability of zero for yourself… then what?”

      You end up spending 3 million years inside it, after a neutron bomb is detonated on your ship and its AI speeds you 3 million years into deep space to prevent contamination of the rest of the solar system.

      On waking up, you realse the AI never bothered to tell the ship to slow down, so it’s been gradually working towards the speed of light, the human race is now most likely extinct, and the only companions you now have is a holographic representation of the bunkmate from hell and something that evolved from a cat, who thinks Wilma Flintstone is the sexiest human who ever lived.

    • CN says:

      09:25am | 06/01/12

      and its now quite difficult to get a good curry anywhere

    • Questions says:

      10:59am | 06/01/12

      @Tracker

      I still dont get how it can work outside of strictly controlled conditions.

      The beam they fired to create the hidden event traversed the other beams being bent… like a + but the horizontal arms of the cross were bent so it looks -badly-  like -( l )-... bending around the vertical line and reforming at the other side.

      Nothing is distorted at either end of the vertical line. Observers on this path can see the entire event, which is exactly what happened or they would never have been able to measure the instance and duration of the ‘hidden’ result…

      anyway… if you cant get curry, you should have
      Fish!
      enjoy your meal.
      Fish!
      enjoy your meal
      Fish!
      enjoy your meal
      ... I will.

    • ShamWow says:

      07:52am | 05/01/12

      How long till I have hide my car from parking rangers?

      Reply

    • SimpleSimon says:

      07:55am | 05/01/12

      Admittedly I’m no physicist, but I’m a bit confused as to how manipulating light results in hiding an event in time. Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s a remarkable achievement, but I’m struggling with the concept.

      Reply

    • stephen says:

      08:08am | 05/01/12

      When you place a stick in water, the refraction alters its place, and the stick appears 2 things,eg it seems as if there are 2 sticks.
      I think the same principle allows scientists to see ‘behind’ stars to determine a supposed planet’s presence by the bending of light
      In both cases, things do not appear as they should, (bit like Tony Abbott’s Policy announcements.)

    • Yuri says:

      10:03am | 05/01/12

      It doesn’t make sense to me either. Hiding something by refracting light around it just means that you can’t see the object or event. I can accept that an object can be unobservable for a specific point in time, but this is no different to throwing a blanket over something to make it ‘disappear’. WTF is a split-time lens anyway? It looks just like a regular lens that splits light.

      There is already existing cloaking technology that uses refracted light to make objects invisible for brief periods, so I don’t see how this is any different.

      Oh, and spatio-temporal coaking would not allow you to travel back in time and cloak any regretable events from your past. You would only be able to cloak events as they occur.

    • SimpleSimon says:

      10:17am | 05/01/12

      @stephen - yes, but that’s a manipulation of light. I’m just not sure how the correlates to manipulation of time.

      I suppose it comes down to relativity, in that time is ultimately relative and dependant on an observer of light? Not sure, but it still seems like light-bending to me..

    • Phil S says:

      11:49am | 05/01/12

      What they are doing is splitting up the light, creating a gap in the middle of it. They pass something through the gap. Then they recombine the light. If the gap wasn’t there, the light would show a trace of when something passed through the beam.

      Think of it like a stream of cars at a railway crossing. some cars get stopped, but they catch up later and so you can’t tell they stopped. However if you didn’t stop the cars, you would notice the carnage when the train came!

    • Yuri says:

      01:25pm | 05/01/12

      Okay, so I had a closer look at the picture above and noticed the location of the time axis. What it appears to indicate is that the lens itself changes with time, which somehow refracts light backwards or forwards through time so that light does not hit the cloaked object during that specific period. I still have no idea how this could actually be accomplished, but I think I understand the concept.

    • roy says:

      08:05am | 05/01/12

      Is it possible -now -to hide the horrid Howard years
      So much international shame was bestowed upon this one-time
      fairplay nation over this time

      Reply

    • rogers says:

      08:59am | 05/01/12

      The Howard years will always be a stain on the character of Australia.
      NO amount of hocus pocus will change that.

    • marley says:

      09:21am | 05/01/12

      I think you’re both overrating the international significance of Australia and of Howard.

    • Rose says:

      09:59am | 05/01/12

      I don’t know Marley, I have a friend who is a dual citizen of Australia and the UK. During the Howard years, when overseas she would refer to herself as English because it was easier than confessing to being Australian and explaining how the lucky country could have so many cruel policies.

    • Markus says:

      10:51am | 05/01/12

      Your friend pretended she wasn’t Australian purely to avoid intelligent political discussion with citizens of other countries?
      Says more about your friend than it does about any actions of the Howard government.

    • Hamish says:

      11:58am | 05/01/12

      Rose, why do you care what some whingeing pom thinks about Australian politics? I certainly don’t.

    • AdamC says:

      12:14pm | 05/01/12

      The problem with Howard haters is you can never tell whether they are being sincere, or satirising themselves. It is quite confusing!

    • Courtney says:

      08:17am | 06/01/12

      Three words: George Bush Jr.

      Enough said.

    • DriveByHeckler says:

      08:19am | 05/01/12

      Didn’t you see the sign on the door? it says “Complicated and Difficult”. You won’t find any celebrities or political gossip here. Best you run along but I think there’s some cricket for you along the corridoor.

      Reply

    • Shane says:

      08:24am | 05/01/12

      Don’t get it, merely hiding an event in time doesn’t destroy anybodies memory of it right?

      You go back, hide the birth of Hitler, while you’re doing that, I open a WWII history book and BAM, there’s the vegemite lipped one, in all his glory committing atrocities and designing snappy uniforms for his cronies - just like he did.

      Unless of course your actions create an alternate timeline, seperate from the original one - then of course - you haven’t hidden anything and the whole endeavor was pointless as you haven’t changed the timeline that the atrocities originally occurred in.

      While you’re back there, don’t sleep with your own grandma, just a tip.

      Reply

    • Semi Concerned Citizen says:

      09:22am | 05/01/12

      Careful you may meet the grandfather paradox.

    • Chris says:

      08:43am | 05/01/12

      How DOES one pronounce ‘satire’ anyway! I thought sa-TYRE was alright!

      Reply

    • Fred says:

      09:18am | 05/01/12

      I thought so too. It’s been pronounced that way every time I’ve heard it. Sounds like Daniel was hanging around with a bunch of gigantic tossers.

    • maybe says:

      10:02am | 05/01/12

      unless it’s the forst syllable he got wrong…saying ‘suh’ (like in sub)...that would sound stupid?

    • James1 says:

      10:09am | 05/01/12

      I thought he meant he had placed the emphasis on the second syllable, when the word is usually pronounced with equal emphasis on both syllables.  If you are alone, say it out loud both ways and you will see what I mean.

    • Anna says:

      10:21am | 05/01/12

      Myabe they mean “SA-tyre”, as in the emphasis on the first syllable?

    • Michael says:

      10:39am | 05/01/12

      If you say “sateye yer” you have said it incorrectly in the same way as saying “lewwah” when you are referring to a lure is incorrect, i would laugh at you as well. smile

      Children say lyens instead of lines and so on, it’s very cute when it is children.

    • Daniel Piotrowski

      Daniel Piotrowski says:

      09:08pm | 05/01/12

      @Fred - I’ll pass that on wink

      I said suh-TYRE. I think everyone has a word they struggle with like that.

    • dancan says:

      08:53am | 05/01/12

      Damn I hate the punch sometimes.  Something as cool as this to discuss and have fun with, and instead people keep bringing up bloody Abbott and Gillard.  FFS

      This is why we can’t have nice things

      Reply

    • James1 says:

      09:33am | 05/01/12

      You mean we can’t have nice things because of Julia Gillard, right?

    • Kebabpete says:

      09:07am | 05/01/12

      I think I’d like to hide the moment of drunkenness where I gave a 25min monologue to a bunch of strangers on the benefits of, and the correct way to make a kebab. And thus never end up with this ridiculous nickname.

      Reply

    • Kurisu Sonsaku says:

      09:58am | 05/01/12

      25 minutes - i’m impressed.

      On the upside be thankful it wasn’t mud cake, although mud-cake-pete is a cool name for a blues singer.  wink

    • Markus says:

      11:00am | 05/01/12

      Never regret enlightening people in the ways of superior kebab construction. The world needs to know these things.
      You sir, are doing a great service to this world.

    • Mattb says:

      12:23pm | 05/01/12

      Im sorry, but ive gotta say it, Kebabs are rubbish. Yes, the fillings (except the ones that have that processed fake beef) are good but I cannot for the life of me understand the need to put them into the sandwich press and make the ‘bread’ hard and crunchy. When in Adelaide go down to glenelg and get a lamb yiros, same filling, with real meat, but with soft pitta bread warmed up on the hot plate, a thousand times better that a kebab.

      An even better idea though, when pissed in Adelaide, is getting a pie floater from the pie cart, nothing better. I moved away from adelaide ten years ago, I hope these two institutions of drunken feeding still exist and I’ve gotta say I’ve been to most of our capitals and, as far a food goes, Adelaide is miles ahead of the rest, radelaidians are spoilt….

    • Tator says:

      01:50pm | 05/01/12

      MattB,
      Can’t argue about the Adelaide Yiros or falafel, there is another great place on Semaphore Rd that makes a good yiros but nothing beats the original pie floater from the Adelaide Railway Station pie cart

    • Mattb says:

      04:29pm | 05/01/12

      Tator

      I have absolutely no doubt that semaphore would have a worthy yiros shop, I just referred to the glenelg ones because that’s where I grew up. I’ve been doing a lot of work in the Whitsunday areas over the last few years and, if your ever in airlie beach, cafe Mykonos in the main st makes a good yiros, I’m pretty sure the owner comes from the semaphore/grange area.

      Adelaide’s food and wine are what I miss the most since leaving. The German, Italian and Greek migrants have bought so much to the city of Adelaide and it isnt until you leave how much you realize how good the restaurants, wineries and food markets in Adelaide are, they are world class. Living on the gold coast I’m lucky if I can even think of more than three restaurants I’d classify as great, shit, there’s half a dozen within 50 meters of each other on rundle st alone.

    • Audra Blue says:

      04:50pm | 05/01/12

      Is it me, or does a pie floater sound like something you see in the toilet bowl after a particularly nasty bout of the flu?  What is it anyway?

    • Mattb says:

      05:09pm | 05/01/12

      Audra blue

      Your probably gonna go “that sounds horrible” when I tell you this but don’t knock it till you try it.

      A Pie floater is a meat pie dropped in the middle of a large bowl of thick pea soup. Blind drunk on a cold winters night in Adelaide, there is nothing better….

    • Tator says:

      07:23pm | 05/01/12

      MattB,
      That’s not a problem as I am a western suburbs guy from near the Port.(but I don’t support the Power) but have had yiros from the Bay and they were good too.  But when you ever come back, there is a Greek Cafe on Tapleys Hill Rd Glenelg North called Kefi (sign is actually in greek lettering ) , the food there is amazing, great quality and huge serves, trick for beginners, only order one entree and one mains per couple, unless you both can eat like two horses, even I couldn’t make it through one main course by myself (not that I even tried to) and I can eat.


      Audra Bue,
      The pie floaters from the Adelaide Railway Station were so good that some even ate them whilst sober.

    • stephen says:

      12:19am | 07/01/12

      Kebab ?
      Try this one.

      Lamb, tomato, onion, with tabouli and cheese - no lettuce - garlic sauce and chilli sauce, then put it in a hot press.

      Best ever.

    • Mr Smith says:

      09:16am | 05/01/12

      Tory, maybe someday you will be rich and powerful. But not through your journalistic skills rather it may be through marriage into wealth or the lottery.

      Reply
    • Tory Shepherd

      Tory Shepherd says:

      01:27pm | 05/01/12

      Oh, thanks, Mr Smith! You know that’s what us chicks all hope for - a white knight to come and save us from the misery of the working world, someone who’ll dress us in pretty clothes and let us go with them to sparkling parties to mix with other important men.

    • the_pseudonym says:

      01:40pm | 05/01/12

      Tory, not to worry, I came, I saw, shopped, bought a t-shirt and ate some pies as well, then I put away the White Armour. Modern women, lost and aimlessly wandering through life, wanting it all and bitching if they can’t have it.  mwahahaha,  Life it’s yours, got the balls (or the female equivalent), go and get it, no one hands you anything.

    • Dan Webster says:

      11:01am | 05/01/12

      Tory, Adelaide has been hiding from time for ages.

      I would take back the time I was seen sleep walking naked in the back yard by my new neighbors. A couple of days later they told us they had seen a “drunk” in our yard. They almost called the police (So glad they didn’t) until they realized it looked like me. I don’t sleep naked now, very embarrassing.

      Some people will not see this post as I have hidden it for a picosecond.

      Reply

    • ronny jonny says:

      11:03am | 05/01/12

      How about taking back the time I drunkenly threw my mother and father in law out of the house loudly proclaiming that “it’s not a f*cking motel”. Not my proudest moment but it did come after 20 years of mental suffering, putting up with their BS and the constant refrain, ‘just bite your tongue, keep the peace” ahh, alcohol, the great inhibition remover.
      Now of course I have to pay for it for the rest of my life

      Reply

    • St. Michael says:

      11:40am | 05/01/12

      Throw them out again.  And this time be sober when you do it.

    • J Patterson says:

      12:22pm | 05/01/12

      You lived the dream, ronny.  You lived the dream.

    • ronny jonny says:

      11:03am | 05/01/12

      How about taking back the time I drunkenly threw my mother and father in law out of the house loudly proclaiming that “it’s not a f*cking motel”. Not my proudest moment but it did come after 20 years of mental suffering, putting up with their BS and the constant refrain, ‘just bite your tongue, keep the peace” ahh, alcohol, the great inhibition remover.
      Now of course I have to pay for it for the rest of my life

      Reply

    • Kika says:

      12:27pm | 05/01/12

      The years between being 18-23. 5 years in total I wish to be folded up and archived somewhere in the space time continuum. I was sad, fat, lonely, used and allowed myself to be stuffed around by my ex. At 23 I was working, learning who I was as a person, had great work colleagues who mentored me into being a stronger confident person and I tossed that loser to the curb. So I suppose it wasn’t all bad… but bad enough!

      Reply

    • Theraptured says:

      02:02pm | 05/01/12

      Tory just likes to keep the Truman show going for all the dumb schmo’s out there, while world war 3 is gaining momentum in the middle east. Tory, just keep drinking your flouride and I can awake to what the globalist are doing in this prison system on this planet. Tory is just another organ of the globalist media. She wants to keep us dumb.

      Reply

    • Kika says:

      03:11pm | 05/01/12

      It’s the shape shifters! Gosh when are people going to wake up!

    • nelson walkom says:

      03:29pm | 05/01/12

      this is a bad explanation of a complex achievement.
      its annoying when a development on such a small scale is extrapolated into
      something hugely improbable, in this case ‘cloaking’ memories.

      Reply

    • Rubens Camejo says:

      03:55pm | 05/01/12

      The time I agreed to move in with an ex and the time I asked another ex to marry me. I should have worked harder to ragain my first ex, the love of my life. She who is in fact the third ex in this wishful story for an invisibility cloack, even if for those 80 picoseconds combined

      Reply

    • Mark says:

      07:38pm | 05/01/12

      love the article, love the science too!!

      I cannot think of a single piece of technology in common use today that was not discovered by accident!!  Most of the time the research has nothing to do with that they discover and then—wow, did you see THAT, or hear THAT or whatever.

      einstein done great work on special relativity and proved that time is a variable (which has since been confirmed other recent experiments) and the research in this article alludes to it.  I don’ think anyone has come close to the depth einstein got to with it.  A friend of his, Tesla I think .. was adamant that teletransportation was possible.  That is, to transport the book sitting on my desk here in Toowoomba, to have it dematerialise, and rematerialise somewhere in Sydney!!  He was laughed at at the time, I think most would still laugh - till someone works out how to do it!!  The idea of a mobile phone was once ridiculed as well

      Reply

    • Foghorn says:

      08:24am | 06/01/12

      I’m going to have to go with the day I met my hero, actress, producer and director Amanda Tapping (for you sci-fi fans playing at home (P.S. Props to you for being awesome))

      I stood up with a microphone to ask her a very intelligent question that I had spent the better part of 6 months constructing in my mind and when I looked at her I spontaneously blurted out “God your pretty!” and everyone burst out laughing.

      Yep. And they have it on film for sci fans to laugh over for ETERNITY.

      On the plus side I got a hug from her so I walked away a VERY HAPPY camper.

      Reply

    • Hallie says:

      08:27am | 06/01/12

      Finally! When the Romulans, Borg, Ori or Wraith attack Earth we now have a viable defence.

      Not exactly an offensive approach but I’ll tell take what I can get.

      Reply

    • the ghost of christmas past says:

      08:46am | 06/01/12

      Phwoar! indeed Tory, if this is developed to it full potential the possibilities could be endless.  One application could be if we had a nasty beligerent critter like north korea or iran flogging nuclear weapons to terrosists we could invade to stop them, without them knowing till it was over

      Reply

    • NESLIHAN KUROSAWA says:

      10:14pm | 06/01/12

      Hi Tory,

      I truly am impressed with all the diagrams & scientific knowledge that you seem to posses these days! It did remind me of physics & chemistry lessons back in High School.  Now that I think about it, I just realize that how useless & irrelevant those lessons really happen to be at the time!

      Even though I did appreciate the basic knowledge about certain subjects.  I still would have dedicated all those hours to something I truly loved & was actually good at naturally!  Somehow, I wanted to say that enough confusion. As well as far too much information at that age & total waste of time really! 

      Because it did consume my days & nights try to learn all these almost laughable topics and for what?  I am not a scientist & never intended to be one anyway!  How about teaching our kids subjects relevant to our daily lives & their potential hidden talents! 

      Would that be asking far too much? Then again if I ever have the chance I would really like to be brain surgeon! To be able to get an up close & personal view of an amazing organ which happens to be our brain!  Best regards to your editors

      Reply

    • Ben H says:

      05:29pm | 07/01/12

      Got to love the Carl Sagan clip about interdimensional interaction. Perhaps that’s what ‘angels’, ‘demons’ and other apparitions are: fourth (or higher) dimensional versions of the apple. And I would suggest that the technology hoarded by elite circles is lightyears ahead of what is presented in this article. Perhaps they will use it for some sort of hoax in 2012.

      Reply
 
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