Philosophy

Time has been one of the most complicated and least studied scientific issues since ancient times.

Eight years ago, American and British scientists who conducted investigations in Antarctica made a sensational discovery. US physicist Mariann McLein told the researchers noticed some spinning gray fog in the sky over the pole on January 27 which they believed to be just ordinary sandstorm. However, the gray fog did not change the form and did not move in the course of time. The researchers decided to investigate the phenomenon and launched a weather balloon with equipment capable to register the wind speed, the temperature and the air moisture. But the weather balloon soared upwards and immediately disappeared. In a little while, the researchers brought the weather balloon back to the ground with the help of a rope attached to it before. They were extremely surprised to see that a chronometer set in the weather balloon displayed the date of January 27, 1965, the same day 30 years ago. The experiment was repeated several times after the researcher found out the equipment was in good repair. But each time the watch was back it displayed the past time. The phenomenon was called “the time gate” and was reported to the White House.

Physicists in Austria say they that have observed events separated by the shortest time interval ever, and plan to use the technique to study atomic phenomena. A group led by Ferenc Krausz of Vienna University of Technology used pulses of laser light to watch electrons moving around atoms, and were able to distinguish events that took place 100 attoseconds – or 10-16 seconds – apart.