Time Out Bouncing through time is effortless for the cast of Lost, but why? Is it down to quantum mechanics? Or a wormhole? Will we ever find out? Do we care? Photo Credit: AP
1. Lost on a Time-Traveling Island If you've watched ABC's "Lost," then you're probably used to things not making a lot of sense. A big reason for this is that the show's mysterious island bounces the characters around through time seamlessly. Seriously, by the end of the series, everyone will be lucky to make it off the island without becoming their own grandparent. Yet "Lost" at least makes an effort to prop up the fiction with a little science. According to blog analysis at Popular Mechanics, the science behind the show's time travel seems to depend on quantum mechanics, a mysterious substance in the ground called "exotic material" and possibly a wormhole. Might this buried, volatile substance produce the necessary energy to manipulate a breach in spacetime? To varying degrees, you could argue that this is all any writer can achieve when crafting a piece of time-travel fiction -- not counting writers who are actually from the future, of course. More on How Warp Speed Works from Article posted June 8, 2009. Got something to say? Email your questions, comments or concerns to discoveryspace@discovery.com. |
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