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Articles on Time travel

Displaying 1 - 20 of 25 articles.

Is time travel even possible? An astrophysicist explains the science behind the science fiction

Adi Foord , University of Maryland, Baltimore County

Are black holes time machines? Yes, but there’s a catch

Sam Baron , Australian Catholic University

What are wormholes? An astrophysicist explains these shortcuts through  space-time

Dejan Stojkovic , University at Buffalo

Curious Kids: is it possible to see what is happening in distant solar systems now?

Jacco van Loon , Keele University

Can we time travel? A theoretical physicist provides some answers

Peter Watson , Carleton University

Curious Kids: what would happen if someone moved at twice the speed of light?

Time travel could be possible, but only with parallel timelines

Barak Shoshany , Brock University

Why does gravity pull us down and not up?

Mario Borunda , Oklahoma State University

New warp drive research dashes faster than light travel dreams – but reveals stranger possibilities

Curious Kids: is time travel possible for humans?

Lucy Strang , The University of Melbourne and Jacqueline Bondell , Swinburne University of Technology

Rotating black holes may serve as gentle portals for hyperspace travel

Gaurav Khanna , UMass Dartmouth

The great movie scenes: Back to the Future

Bruce Isaacs , University of Sydney

Time travel is possible – but only if you have an object with infinite mass

Stephen Hawking’s final book suggests time travel may one day be possible – here’s what to make of it

Peter Millington , University of Nottingham

Like a TARDIS in your head, memory helps you travel through time

Alice Mason , The University of Western Australia

Time travel: a conversation between a scientist and a literature professor

Richard Bower , Durham University and Simon John James , Durham University

Star Trek’s version of time travel is more realistic than most sci fi

Lloyd Strickland , Manchester Metropolitan University

Anthill 1: About time

Annabel Bligh , The Conversation and Gemma Ware , The Conversation

How to build a time machine

Steve Humble , Newcastle University

It’s Back to the Future Day today – so what are the next future predictions?

Michael Cowling , CQUniversity Australia ; Hamza Bendemra , Australian National University ; Justin Zobel , The University of Melbourne ; Philip Branch , Swinburne University of Technology ; Robert Merkel , Monash University ; Thas Ampalavanapillai Nirmalathas , The University of Melbourne , and Toby Walsh , Data61

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Is time travel possible? Why one scientist says we 'cannot ignore the possibility.'

A common theme in science-fiction media , time travel is captivating. It’s defined by the late philosopher David Lewis in his essay “The Paradoxes of Time Travel” as “[involving] a discrepancy between time and space time. Any traveler departs and then arrives at his destination; the time elapsed from departure to arrival … is the duration of the journey.”

Time travel is usually understood by most as going back to a bygone era or jumping forward to a point far in the future . But how much of the idea is based in reality? Is it possible to travel through time? 

Is time travel possible?

According to NASA, time travel is possible , just not in the way you might expect. Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity says time and motion are relative to each other, and nothing can go faster than the speed of light , which is 186,000 miles per second. Time travel happens through what’s called “time dilation.”

Time dilation , according to Live Science, is how one’s perception of time is different to another's, depending on their motion or where they are. Hence, time being relative. 

Learn more: Best travel insurance

Dr. Ana Alonso-Serrano, a postdoctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics in Germany, explained the possibility of time travel and how researchers test theories. 

Space and time are not absolute values, Alonso-Serrano said. And what makes this all more complex is that you are able to carve space-time .

“In the moment that you carve the space-time, you can play with that curvature to make the time come in a circle and make a time machine,” Alonso-Serrano told USA TODAY. 

She explained how, theoretically, time travel is possible. The mathematics behind creating curvature of space-time are solid, but trying to re-create the strict physical conditions needed to prove these theories can be challenging. 

“The tricky point of that is if you can find a physical, realistic, way to do it,” she said. 

Alonso-Serrano said wormholes and warp drives are tools that are used to create this curvature. The matter needed to achieve curving space-time via a wormhole is exotic matter , which hasn’t been done successfully. Researchers don’t even know if this type of matter exists, she said.

“It's something that we work on because it's theoretically possible, and because it's a very nice way to test our theory, to look for possible paradoxes,” Alonso-Serrano added.

“I could not say that nothing is possible, but I cannot ignore the possibility,” she said. 

She also mentioned the anecdote of  Stephen Hawking’s Champagne party for time travelers . Hawking had a GPS-specific location for the party. He didn’t send out invites until the party had already happened, so only people who could travel to the past would be able to attend. No one showed up, and Hawking referred to this event as "experimental evidence" that time travel wasn't possible.

What did Albert Einstein invent?: Discoveries that changed the world

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Time Travel

A collection of “time travel” columns published in the new york times..

25 Years Ago, NASA Envisioned Its Own ‘Orient Express’

The National Aero-Space Plane, which was to be able to circle the earth in 90 minutes, fell far short of such predictions.

By Kenneth Chang

Dark Spots in Our Knowledge of Neptune

Voyager 2 and the Hubble Space Telescope have offered tantalizing glimpses of Neptune that show how much more there is to learn about the planet.

Debate Continues on Hazards of Electromagnetic Waves

Twenty-five years after a Science Times report, there remains uncertainty about the potentially harmful effects of certain electromagnetic waves.

Gauging the Intelligence of Infants

A test developed 25 years ago has held up surprisingly well, but the widespread screening its developer advocated has not become a reality.

Crystals in the Sky

Experiments with protein crystals that were conducted aboard Discovery in 1989 yielded little, but a project planned for the International Space Station holds promise.

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Paradox-Free Time Travel Is Theoretically Possible, Researchers Say

Matthew S. Schwartz

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

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.

"The past is obdurate," Stephen King wrote in his book about a man who goes back in time to prevent the Kennedy assassination. "It doesn't want to be changed."

Turns out, King might have been on to something.

Countless science fiction tales have explored the paradox of what would happen if you went back in time and did something in the past that endangered the future. Perhaps one of the most famous pop culture examples is in Back to the Future , when Marty McFly goes back in time and accidentally stops his parents from meeting, putting his own existence in jeopardy.

But maybe McFly wasn't in much danger after all. According a new paper from researchers at the University of Queensland, even if time travel were possible, the paradox couldn't actually exist.

Researchers ran the numbers and determined that even if you made a change in the past, the timeline would essentially self-correct, ensuring that whatever happened to send you back in time would still happen.

"Say you traveled in time in an attempt to stop COVID-19's patient zero from being exposed to the virus," University of Queensland scientist Fabio Costa told the university's news service .

"However, if you stopped that individual from becoming infected, that would eliminate the motivation for you to go back and stop the pandemic in the first place," said Costa, who co-authored the paper with honors undergraduate student Germain Tobar.

"This is a paradox — an inconsistency that often leads people to think that time travel cannot occur in our universe."

A variation is known as the "grandfather paradox" — in which a time traveler kills their own grandfather, in the process preventing the time traveler's birth.

The logical paradox has given researchers a headache, in part because according to Einstein's theory of general relativity, "closed timelike curves" are possible, theoretically allowing an observer to travel back in time and interact with their past self — potentially endangering their own existence.

But these researchers say that such a paradox wouldn't necessarily exist, because events would adjust themselves.

Take the coronavirus patient zero example. "You might try and stop patient zero from becoming infected, but in doing so, you would catch the virus and become patient zero, or someone else would," Tobar told the university's news service.

In other words, a time traveler could make changes, but the original outcome would still find a way to happen — maybe not the same way it happened in the first timeline but close enough so that the time traveler would still exist and would still be motivated to go back in time.

"No matter what you did, the salient events would just recalibrate around you," Tobar said.

The paper, "Reversible dynamics with closed time-like curves and freedom of choice," was published last week in the peer-reviewed journal Classical and Quantum Gravity . The findings seem consistent with another time travel study published this summer in the peer-reviewed journal Physical Review Letters. That study found that changes made in the past won't drastically alter the future.

Bestselling science fiction author Blake Crouch, who has written extensively about time travel, said the new study seems to support what certain time travel tropes have posited all along.

"The universe is deterministic and attempts to alter Past Event X are destined to be the forces which bring Past Event X into being," Crouch told NPR via email. "So the future can affect the past. Or maybe time is just an illusion. But I guess it's cool that the math checks out."

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Time travel: What if you met your future self?

Imagining a conversation with "future you" has multiple benefits for your wellbeing.

There's a classic short story by Ted Chiang in which a young merchant travels years ahead and meets his future self . Over the course of the story, the man receives warnings, promises and tips from the older, wiser version of himself. These premonitions then change the course of the merchant's life until he eventually becomes an older man, who meets his younger self and imparts the same wisdom.

Scenarios like this are wildly popular and have been explored in many other novels as well as in movies like Back to the Future, and TV shows as diverse as Family Guy, Quantum Leap , and the BBC's own Doctor Who (see "The Doctor meets The Doctor" below). 

For obvious reasons, these narratives have always been relegated to the realm of science fiction. But what if – and it is a big what if – you could meet your future self? What a very strange question, but one that I believe is worth asking.

I'm a psychologist and professor, so I recognise that talking about the hypothetical implications of time travel may sound strange coming from someone in my career. But my research over the last 15 years isn't all that far off from this theme. I've largely focused on how people think about and relate to their future selves, and I recently published a book on the topic . In it, I explore the reasons why we have such a hard time making long-term decisions, and how – by improving the emotional connections we have with our future selves – we can ultimately make better choices.  

To mark the  60th anniversary of Doctor Who , we're exploring the big questions about time, including the science of time travel, how clocks have shaped humanity, and even the mind-bending temporal consequences of flying into a black hole.  Read and watch more from   Time: The Ultimate Guide .

In my research, I've learnt that we often imagine our future self as another person. That tendency can create problems for us. To get a sense of why, think about someone in your life who you barely know: a neighbour or a co-worker, for instance. If that stranger asked you to make a sacrifice for their benefit – say, to lend them money – you might politely decline. If we treat our future selves the same way, then it makes sense why we sometimes give in to short-term desires (like buying a higher-end TV or car) rather than do something we'll feel better about in the long run (saving for a vacation next summer).

If only we could try to make our future selves seem less like strangers: people like our partners, loved ones, or best friends. One way to bridge the emotional gulf is to think of future selves in more concrete and vivid ways. What's vivid is emotional, and what’s emotional can kick us into action. In one recent study , for instance, my collaborators and I partnered with a bank and found that when customers were shown age-progressed images of themselves alongside encouraging messages about saving for retirement, they were about 16% more likely to make a retirement contribution than people who solely received the encouraging messages. Other work has found that writing letters to – and then from – one's future self can similarly strengthen the connection between current and future selves.

Admittedly, showing people images of their older face, or having them engage in a hypothetical conversation, are far cries from actually meeting one's future self. But it's conceivable that far richer interactions may happen in the near future through artificial intelligence. (Read more: The A-Z of AI: 30 terms you need to understand artificial intelligence .)

What if an AI model akin to Chat-GPT or Bard could be trained on the life experiences of individual people? These models have become astonishingly smart by learning from vast datasets about how human beings communicate, and they essentially work by making predictions. If such a model incorporated things like your birthplace, educational history, personality, relationships and hobbies – and those of millions of other people too – it might be able to make a prediction about the person you will be in 10 or 20 years' time. To be clear, the model wouldn't be predicting exactly what choices you'd make. It'd be more about showing your potential, based on the lives of people similar to you: not just one possible life for you, but rather, the most possible life path for you.

The Doctor meets The Doctor

As a time traveller, it's perhaps not surprising that Doctor Who has met themselves more than once. Yet despite their wisdom and experience, they often treat each other as strangers – spending their encounters bickering, criticising their counterpart's clothing, or commenting on the redesigned Tardis. Watch: Three times The Doctor met themselves .

Now, imagine conversing with that future version of you in the same way you might chat with a friend or loved one now. What would you ask? My own knee-jerk response – and that of other people I’ve discussed it with – is often resistance. The source of this, I think, boils down to our desire to see ourselves as unique. How, we wonder, could an algorithm make a prediction about me – me with my many-coloured feathers that make me one in eight billion?

Yet I must accept – grudgingly – that I am not as unique as I like to think, and algorithms already predict my personality, desires and choices on a regular basis. Every time I listen to a personalised Spotify playlist, or love a Netflix film recommendation, a form of AI has predicted it. As these algorithms get more powerful, with greater access to data about us and other similar people, there's no reason they couldn't go beyond surface-level details like your future self's entertainment choices. They might be able to predict how the older, wiser version of you might feel about the decisions in your life.

Eight questions to ask "future you"

So, to return to my original question: if you could time-travel to meet your future self, what aspects of your life would you want to know more about? Which ones would you prefer to be shrouded in secrecy? And if you’d pass up on the meeting, why?

I've been thinking a lot about what I would do. My first instinct would be to ask my future self things like… are you happy? Are your family members happy and healthy? Is the environment safe for your grandkids and great-grandkids?

The more I considered these initial questions, the more I realised just how much I was concerned with what the future holds. A very informal survey of my wife and a few friends suggests I may not be alone in this tendency.

But reflecting on it further, I realised that the most powerful questions would be ones that helped me make better choices today. With that as the goal, I might generate several queries meant to kick off a dialogue between my two selves, such as:

●      What have you been most proud of and why?

●      In what ways – both positive and negative – have you changed over time?

●      What's something that you miss most from earlier in your life?

●      What actions have you regretted?

●      What actions did you not take that you regret?

●      What’s a time period you'd most want to repeat?

●      What things should I be paying more attention to now?

●      Which things should I stress about a little less?

Imagine if you were to put these eight questions to your future self. What might you find out that would modify how you live now? It’d probably be the most important conversation of your life.

However, the truth is, you don't need to wait for time travel or advanced AI for answers that you can act on. Through my research as a psychologist, I've learnt that simply taking a bit of time to picture this meeting can help you make better choices now, closing the emotional gap between who you are today and who you'll be tomorrow. All you need is a little imagination, and the willingness to put yourself in the shoes of a person you currently treat as a stranger.

* Hal Hershfield is a professor of marketing, behavioural decision making, and psychology at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management, and the author of Your Future Self: How to Make Tomorrow Better Today , which was published in June .

If you liked this story,  sign up for The Essential List newsletter  – a handpicked selection of features, videos and can't-miss news delivered to your inbox every Friday.  

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Time travel is theoretically possible, calculations show. But that doesn't mean you could change the past.

• Time travel is possible based on the laws of physics, according to researchers.
• But time-travelers wouldn't be able to alter the past in a measurable way, they say. 
• And the future would essentially stay the same, according to the reseachers. 

Imagine you could hop into a time machine, press a button, and journey back to 2019, before the novel coronavirus made the leap from animals to humans.  

What if you could find and isolate patient zero? Theoretically, the COVID-19 pandemic wouldn't happen, right? 

Not quite, because then future-you wouldn't have decided to time travel in the first place.

For decades, physicists have been studying and debating versions of this paradox: If we could travel back in time and change the past, what would happen to the future?

A 2020 study offered a potential answer: Nothing.

"Events readjust around anything that could cause a paradox, so the paradox does not happen," Germain Tobar, the study's author previously told IFLScience .

Tobar's work, published in the peer-reviewed journal Classical and Quantum Gravity in September 2020, suggests that according to the rules of theoretical physics, anything you tried to change in the past would be corrected by subsequent events.

Put simply: It's theoretically possible to go back in time, but you couldn't change history.

The grandfather paradox

Physicists have considered time travel to be theoretically possible since Albert Einstein came up with his theory of relativity. Einstein's calculations suggest it's possible for an object in our universe to travel through space and time in a circular direction, eventually ending up at a point on its journey where it's been before – a path called a closed time-like curve.

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Still, physicists continue to struggle with scenarios like the coronavirus example above, in which time-travelers alter events that already happened. The most famous example is known as the grandfather paradox: Say a time-traveler goes back to the past and kills a younger version of his or her grandfather. The grandfather then wouldn't have any children, erasing the time-traveler's parents and, of course, the time-traveler, too. But then who would kill Grandpa?

A take on this paradox appears in the movie "Back to the Future," when Marty McFly almost stops his parents from meeting in the past – potentially causing himself to disappear. 

To address the paradox, Tobar and his supervisor, Dr. Fabio Costa, used the "billiard-ball model," which imagines cause and effect as a series of colliding billiard balls, and a circular pool table as a closed time-like curve.

Imagine a bunch of billiard balls laid out across that circular table. If you push one ball from position X, it bangs around the table, hitting others in a particular pattern. 

The researchers calculated that even if you mess with the ball's pattern at some point in its journey, future interactions with other balls can correct its path, leading it to come back to the same position and speed that it would have had you not interfered.

"Regardless of the choice, the ball will fall into the same place," Dr Yasunori Nomura, a theoretical physicist at UC Berkeley, previously told Insider.

Tobar's model, in other words, says you could travel back in time, but you couldn't change how events unfolded significantly enough to alter the future, Nomura said. Applied to the grandfather paradox, then, this would mean that something would always get in the way of your attempt to kill your grandfather. Or at least by the time he did die, your grandmother would already be pregnant with your mother. 

Back to the coronavirus example. Let's say you were to travel back to 2019 and intervene in patient zero's life. According to Tobar's line of thinking, the pandemic would still happen somehow.

"You might try and stop patient zero from becoming infected, but in doing so you would catch the virus and become patient zero, or someone else would," Tobar said, according to Australia's University of Queensland , where Tobar graduated from. 

Nomura said that although the model is too simple to represent the full range of cause and effect in our universe, it's a good starting point for future physicists.  

Watch: There are 2 types of time travel and physicists agree that one of them is possible

• Main content

Is time travel even possible? An astrophysicist explains the science behind the science fiction

Published: Nov 13, 2023

By: Magazine Editor

Written by Adi Foord , assistant professor of physics , UMBC

Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to [email protected] .

Will it ever be possible for time travel to occur? – Alana C., age 12, Queens, New York

Have you ever dreamed of traveling through time, like characters do in science fiction movies? For centuries, the concept of time travel has captivated people’s imaginations. Time travel is the concept of moving between different points in time, just like you move between different places. In movies, you might have seen characters using special machines, magical devices or even hopping into a futuristic car to travel backward or forward in time.

But is this just a fun idea for movies, or could it really happen?

The question of whether time is reversible remains one of the biggest unresolved questions in science. If the universe follows the laws of thermodynamics , it may not be possible. The second law of thermodynamics states that things in the universe can either remain the same or become more disordered over time.

It’s a bit like saying you can’t unscramble eggs once they’ve been cooked. According to this law, the universe can never go back exactly to how it was before. Time can only go forward, like a one-way street.

Time is relative

However, physicist Albert Einstein’s theory of special relativity suggests that time passes at different rates for different people. Someone speeding along on a spaceship moving close to the speed of light – 671 million miles per hour! – will experience time slower than a person on Earth.

People have yet to build spaceships that can move at speeds anywhere near as fast as light, but astronauts who visit the International Space Station orbit around the Earth at speeds close to 17,500 mph. Astronaut Scott Kelly has spent 520 days at the International Space Station, and as a result has aged a little more slowly than his twin brother – and fellow astronaut – Mark Kelly. Scott used to be 6 minutes younger than his twin brother. Now, because Scott was traveling so much faster than Mark and for so many days, he is 6 minutes and 5 milliseconds younger .

Some scientists are exploring other ideas that could theoretically allow time travel. One concept involves wormholes , or hypothetical tunnels in space that could create shortcuts for journeys across the universe. If someone could build a wormhole and then figure out a way to move one end at close to the speed of light – like the hypothetical spaceship mentioned above – the moving end would age more slowly than the stationary end. Someone who entered the moving end and exited the wormhole through the stationary end would come out in their past.

However, wormholes remain theoretical: Scientists have yet to spot one. It also looks like it would be incredibly challenging to send humans through a wormhole space tunnel.

Paradoxes and failed dinner parties

There are also paradoxes associated with time travel. The famous “ grandfather paradox ” is a hypothetical problem that could arise if someone traveled back in time and accidentally prevented their grandparents from meeting. This would create a paradox where you were never born, which raises the question: How could you have traveled back in time in the first place? It’s a mind-boggling puzzle that adds to the mystery of time travel.

Famously, physicist Stephen Hawking tested the possibility of time travel by throwing a dinner party where invitations noting the date, time and coordinates were not sent out until after it had happened. His hope was that his invitation would be read by someone living in the future, who had capabilities to travel back in time. But no one showed up.

As he pointed out : “The best evidence we have that time travel is not possible, and never will be, is that we have not been invaded by hordes of tourists from the future.”

Telescopes are time machines

Interestingly, astrophysicists armed with powerful telescopes possess a unique form of time travel. As they peer into the vast expanse of the cosmos, they gaze into the past universe. Light from all galaxies and stars takes time to travel, and these beams of light carry information from the distant past. When astrophysicists observe a star or a galaxy through a telescope, they are not seeing it as it is in the present, but as it existed when the light began its journey to Earth millions to billions of years ago. https://www.youtube.com/embed/QeRtcJi3V38?wmode=transparent&start=0 Telescopes are a kind of time machine – they let you peer into the past.

NASA’s newest space telescope, the James Webb Space Telescope , is peering at galaxies that were formed at the very beginning of the Big Bang, about 13.7 billion years ago.

While we aren’t likely to have time machines like the ones in movies anytime soon, scientists are actively researching and exploring new ideas. But for now, we’ll have to enjoy the idea of time travel in our favorite books, movies and dreams.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article and see more than 250 UMBC articles available in The Conversation.

Tags: CNMS , Physics , The Conversation

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Is Time Travel Possible?

We all travel in time! We travel one year in time between birthdays, for example. And we are all traveling in time at approximately the same speed: 1 second per second.

We typically experience time at one second per second. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA's space telescopes also give us a way to look back in time. Telescopes help us see stars and galaxies that are very far away . It takes a long time for the light from faraway galaxies to reach us. So, when we look into the sky with a telescope, we are seeing what those stars and galaxies looked like a very long time ago.

However, when we think of the phrase "time travel," we are usually thinking of traveling faster than 1 second per second. That kind of time travel sounds like something you'd only see in movies or science fiction books. Could it be real? Science says yes!

This image from the Hubble Space Telescope shows galaxies that are very far away as they existed a very long time ago. Credit: NASA, ESA and R. Thompson (Univ. Arizona)

How do we know that time travel is possible?

More than 100 years ago, a famous scientist named Albert Einstein came up with an idea about how time works. He called it relativity. This theory says that time and space are linked together. Einstein also said our universe has a speed limit: nothing can travel faster than the speed of light (186,000 miles per second).

Einstein's theory of relativity says that space and time are linked together. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

What does this mean for time travel? Well, according to this theory, the faster you travel, the slower you experience time. Scientists have done some experiments to show that this is true.

For example, there was an experiment that used two clocks set to the exact same time. One clock stayed on Earth, while the other flew in an airplane (going in the same direction Earth rotates).

After the airplane flew around the world, scientists compared the two clocks. The clock on the fast-moving airplane was slightly behind the clock on the ground. So, the clock on the airplane was traveling slightly slower in time than 1 second per second.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Can we use time travel in everyday life?

We can't use a time machine to travel hundreds of years into the past or future. That kind of time travel only happens in books and movies. But the math of time travel does affect the things we use every day.

For example, we use GPS satellites to help us figure out how to get to new places. (Check out our video about how GPS satellites work .) NASA scientists also use a high-accuracy version of GPS to keep track of where satellites are in space. But did you know that GPS relies on time-travel calculations to help you get around town?

GPS satellites orbit around Earth very quickly at about 8,700 miles (14,000 kilometers) per hour. This slows down GPS satellite clocks by a small fraction of a second (similar to the airplane example above).

GPS satellites orbit around Earth at about 8,700 miles (14,000 kilometers) per hour. Credit: GPS.gov

However, the satellites are also orbiting Earth about 12,550 miles (20,200 km) above the surface. This actually speeds up GPS satellite clocks by a slighter larger fraction of a second.

Here's how: Einstein's theory also says that gravity curves space and time, causing the passage of time to slow down. High up where the satellites orbit, Earth's gravity is much weaker. This causes the clocks on GPS satellites to run faster than clocks on the ground.

The combined result is that the clocks on GPS satellites experience time at a rate slightly faster than 1 second per second. Luckily, scientists can use math to correct these differences in time.

If scientists didn't correct the GPS clocks, there would be big problems. GPS satellites wouldn't be able to correctly calculate their position or yours. The errors would add up to a few miles each day, which is a big deal. GPS maps might think your home is nowhere near where it actually is!

In Summary:

Yes, time travel is indeed a real thing. But it's not quite what you've probably seen in the movies. Under certain conditions, it is possible to experience time passing at a different rate than 1 second per second. And there are important reasons why we need to understand this real-world form of time travel.

If you liked this, you may like:

Time Travel Possible? What Scientists Found Out With Latest Experiment

The study was a gedankenexperiment, a term used by albert einstein to refer to theoretical investigations carried out in place of actual experiments which are helpful for probing the boundaries of physics..

We all have a fascination with the idea of time travel, much like what we see in popular fiction. In films, we have mostly witnessed people sitting in a large, heavy machine and travelling hundreds of years into the past or future. However, this is not the case. Now scientists have come up with another experiment using quantum entanglement to simulate the activity- the strange way that quantum particles can interact, as per Gizmodo Newsletter . The concept found its way in the 2018 movie 'Ant-Man And The Wasp'.

The latest study was a Gedankenexperiment, a term used by Albert Einstein to refer to theoretical investigations carried out in place of actual experiments which are helpful for probing the boundaries of physics, such as particle motion at the speed of light. However, the team's latest work in Physical Review Letters describes a simulation that contains "effective time travel." The phenomenon wherein the properties of two or more quantum particles are determined by one another is known as quantum entanglement. Since the entanglement of two particles occurs on a quantum level, factors like their physical distance have no effect on the interaction. Hence, understanding the characteristics of one entangled particle provides knowledge about the other.

A possible time-travelling method known as closed-timelike curves was investigated in a recent study. The curve is the arc formed by a particle throughout its lifetime in spacetime that runs backwards. In the experiment, scientists subject photonic probes to a quantum interaction, with the aim of producing a quantifiable outcome.  

They may ascertain what input would have produced the best outcome based on that outcome. However, since the outcome was the consequence of a quantum operation, the researchers may adjust the quantum probe's values through entanglement to get a better result even if the operation has already taken place, as opposed to being stuck with a less-than-ideal outcome, as per the Gizmodo Newsletter.

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Through the study, scientists found that the time travel effect would happen once every four times, or at a failure rate of 75 per cent. The researchers proposed delivering a lot of entangled photons and using a filter to verify that the photons with the revised information got through while sifting away the outdated particles in order to solve the high failure rate.

David Arvidsson-Shukur, a quantum physicist at the University of Cambridge and the study's author told the outlet, "The experiment that we describe seems impossible to solve with standard (not quantum) physics, which obeys the normal arrow of time. Thus, it appears as if quantum entanglement can generate instances which effectively look like time travel."

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April 25, 2022

Time travel could be possible, but only with parallel timelines

by Barak Shoshany, The Conversation

Have you ever made a mistake that you wish you could undo? Correcting past mistakes is one of the reasons we find the concept of time travel so fascinating. As often portrayed in science fiction, with a time machine, nothing is permanent anymore—you can always go back and change it. But is time travel really possible in our universe , or is it just science fiction?

Our modern understanding of time and causality comes from general relativity . Theoretical physicist Albert Einstein's theory combines space and time into a single entity—"spacetime"—and provides a remarkably intricate explanation of how they both work, at a level unmatched by any other established theory. This theory has existed for more than 100 years, and has been experimentally verified to extremely high precision, so physicists are fairly certain it provides an accurate description of the causal structure of our universe.

For decades, physicists have been trying to use general relativity to figure out if time travel is possible . It turns out that you can write down equations that describe time travel and are fully compatible and consistent with relativity. But physics is not mathematics, and equations are meaningless if they do not correspond to anything in reality.

Arguments against time travel

There are two main issues which make us think these equations may be unrealistic. The first issue is a practical one: building a time machine seems to require exotic matter , which is matter with negative energy. All the matter we see in our daily lives has positive energy—matter with negative energy is not something you can just find lying around. From quantum mechanics , we know that such matter can theoretically be created, but in too small quantities and for too short times .

However, there is no proof that it is impossible to create exotic matter in sufficient quantities. Furthermore, other equations may be discovered that allow time travel without requiring exotic matter . Therefore, this issue may just be a limitation of our current technology or understanding of quantum mechanics.

The other main issue is less practical, but more significant: it is the observation that time travel seems to contradict logic, in the form of time travel paradoxes . There are several types of such paradoxes, but the most problematic are consistency paradoxes .

A popular trope in science fiction, consistency paradoxes happen whenever there is a certain event that leads to changing the past, but the change itself prevents this event from happening in the first place.

For example, consider a scenario where I enter my time machine, use it to go back in time five minutes, and destroy the machine as soon as I get to the past. Now that I destroyed the time machine, it would be impossible for me to use it five minutes later.

But if I cannot use the time machine, then I cannot go back in time and destroy it. Therefore, it is not destroyed, so I can go back in time and destroy it. In other words, the time machine is destroyed if and only if it is not destroyed. Since it cannot be both destroyed and not destroyed simultaneously, this scenario is inconsistent and paradoxical.

Eliminating the paradoxes

There's a common misconception in science fiction that paradoxes can be "created." Time travelers are usually warned not to make significant changes to the past and to avoid meeting their past selves for this exact reason. Examples of this may be found in many time travel movies, such as the "Back to the Future" trilogy.

But in physics, a paradox is not an event that can actually happen—it is a purely theoretical concept that points towards an inconsistency in the theory itself. In other words, consistency paradoxes don't merely imply time travel is a dangerous endeavor, they imply it simply cannot be possible.

This was one of the motivations for theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking to formulate his chronology protection conjecture , which states that time travel should be impossible. However, this conjecture so far remains unproven. Furthermore, the universe would be a much more interesting place if instead of eliminating time travel due to paradoxes, we could just eliminate the paradoxes themselves.

One attempt at resolving time travel paradoxes is theoretical physicist Igor Dmitriyevich Novikov's self-consistency conjecture , which essentially states that you can travel to the past, but you cannot change it.

According to Novikov, if I tried to destroy my time machine five minutes in the past, I would find that it is impossible to do so. The laws of physics would somehow conspire to preserve consistency.

Introducing multiple histories

But what's the point of going back in time if you cannot change the past? My recent work, together with my students Jacob Hauser and Jared Wogan, shows that there are time travel paradoxes that Novikov's conjecture cannot resolve. This takes us back to square one, since if even just one paradox cannot be eliminated, time travel remains logically impossible.

So, is this the final nail in the coffin of time travel? Not quite. We showed that allowing for multiple histories (or in more familiar terms, parallel timelines) can resolve the paradoxes that Novikov's conjecture cannot. In fact, it can resolve any paradox you throw at it.

The idea is very simple. When I exit the time machine, I exit into a different timeline. In that timeline, I can do whatever I want, including destroying the time machine, without changing anything in the original timeline I came from. Since I cannot destroy the time machine in the original timeline, which is the one I actually used to travel back in time, there is no paradox.

After working on time travel paradoxes for the last three years , I have become increasingly convinced that time travel could be possible, but only if our universe can allow multiple histories to coexist. So, can it?

Quantum mechanics certainly seems to imply so, at least if you subscribe to Everett's "many-worlds" interpretation , where one history can "split" into multiple histories, one for each possible measurement outcome—for example, whether Schrödinger's cat is alive or dead, or whether or not I arrived in the past.

But these are just speculations. My students and I are currently working on finding a concrete theory of time travel with multiple histories that is fully compatible with general relativity . Of course, even if we manage to find such a theory, this would not be sufficient to prove that time travel is possible, but it would at least mean that time travel is not ruled out by consistency paradoxes.

Time travel and parallel timelines almost always go hand-in-hand in science fiction , but now we have proof that they must go hand-in-hand in real science as well. General relativity and quantum mechanics tell us that time travel might be possible, but if it is, then multiple histories must also be possible.

Provided by The Conversation

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Two lanes were closed

• Updated 08:52, 6 SEP 2024

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Road and traffic monitoring site Inrix first reported the crash at 4.06 pm. It said: "Two lanes closed and queueing traffic due to accident on M5 Northbound from J29 A3015 Honiton Road (Exeter / Honiton ) to J28 A373 Honiton Road ( Cullompton / Service Area). Travel time is 15 minutes."

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Traffic easing, earlier accident on M5 Northbound from J29 A3015 Honiton Road (Exeter / Honiton ) to J28 A373 Honiton Road ( Cullompton / Service Area).

The M5 is now clear

Queueing traffic due to earlier accident on M5 Northbound from J29 A3015 Honiton Road (Exeter / Honiton) to J28 A373 Honiton Road (Cullompton / Service Area).

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Two lanes closed and queueing traffic due to accident on M5 Northbound from J29 A3015 Honiton Road (Exeter / Honiton ) to J28 A373 Honiton Road ( Cullompton / Service Area). Travel time is 15 minutes.

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Mountain Dew giving out free drinks for rest of 2024 if you travel to this time zone

FILE-Bottles of PepsiCo Inc. Mountain Dew brand soda sits on display in a supermarket. (Daniel Acker/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Mountain Dew has a unique offer for people visiting a certain region of the U.S.

The soft drink brand is giving anyone who travels into the Mountain Time Zone a free Mountain Dew during the rest of this year. 

This promotion is starting now through Dec. 31, and all you have to do is register ahead of your visit at WelcometoMTNTime.com. And once consumers enter the Mountain Time Zone, they can redeem their coupon for a free Mountain Dew by revisiting the website. 

"With the great outdoors at the core of everything we do, we want to encourage everyone to embrace the Mountain Time mindset by giving away free Mountain Dew to anyone who crosses into the Mountain Time Zone," JP Bittencourt, Vice President of Marketing at Mountain Dew said in a statement. "Additionally, we want to reward those who take the leap and move to the happiest time zone in the country with their friends by paying for their move."

What areas are in the Mountain Time Zone?

The Mountain Time Zone area includes part or all of the following states: Arizona, Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming, Idaho, Oregon, Nevada, Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Texas, per the World Population Review . 

Mountain Dew wants to pay for you to move to this time zone

Whether you're stopping by the gas station before a road trip or wandering the Hudson store at the airport, grabbing a beverage on a travel day is a must. And Mountain Dew wants to make that choice a little easier — and cheaper — but only if you're heading toward a certain time zone.

As part of its mission to help fans "live life to the fullest," the soda brand has adopted the Mountain Time Zone as its own, saying it's the first time a brand has ever "officially, unofficially" owned a time zone.

And now until Dec. 31, anyone who crosses into the time zone— whether by plane, train, automobile or on foot —  can get a free 20-ounce Mountain Dew in any flavor, as long as they have previously registered with their email on WelcometoMTNTime.com .

RELATED STORY | Dr Pepper is now the second biggest soda brand, surpassing Pepsi

But let's say you really enjoyed your trip to the Mountain Time Zone and have decided to pack up and move there. Mountain Dew says it'll pay for the cost of your move plus give you free Mountain Dew for a year and branded outdoor gear, for five lucky winners.

So why the push to the Mountain Time Zone? The soda brand says those who live there are happier than the typical American, and as a brand "born in the great outdoors," they want to encourage more customers to visit and reward those who "take the leap" with a move.

"When it comes to Mountain Time, who wouldn't be happier in a time zone that is close to nature where the sights, sounds, and smells of the mountains clear your mind and help you boldly live free?" the brand said in a press release . "Mountain Dew is continuing to lean into its rich history of engaging with fans outdoors and encouraging all to gather with their crew and live life to the fullest."

RELATED STORY | FDA officially banning soda ingredient that's 'no longer considered safe'

If you've registered on WelcometoMTNTime.com and have entered the Mountain Time Zone, just revisit the website to claim your free Mountain Dew.

And if you want to cash in on the "Mountain Dew Hauls" moving deal, create a TikTok video explaining why you're hoping to move to the Mountain Time Zone and how you plan to "enjoy the outdoors with their crew" when you get there. Make sure to add #MountainDewHauls and #contest in the caption to enter.

Mountain Dew will then reimburse five people's moving fees for up to $10,000, alongside the other prizes. Full contest details can be found here .

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Sydney has been crowned as Oceania’s top city destination in the prestigious World Travel Awards 2024

The Harbour City ranked as the best city to visit according to global travel experts

We don’t need to be persuaded that Sydney – with its breathtakingly beautiful harbour, sparkling coastline and world-class foodie scene – is one of the best places on the planet. But it’s nice when that recognition comes from an external source – just to confirm our suspicions.

This week, the Harbour City scored Big, with Sydney being labelled the best city destination in the whole of Oceania by  the prestigious World Travel Awards 2024. Established in 1993, these awards celebrate the very best destinations, airlines, hotels, tourist attractions and tourism operators around the globe – with the winners voted by industry professionals and the public. 

Australia scooped up a collection of major international awards,  which we’ll get to later – but the awards that we’re most interested in are those that went to our beautiful sun-soaked city. Sydney  won gold on the global stage, being recognised as Oceania’s Leading City Destination in 2024. Our Emerald City also scooped up awards for the best hotel in Oceania, awarded to The Langham Sydney , and the top new hotel, awarded to W Sydney .

Indigenous tourism stole the spotlight too, with Ayers Rock Resort recognised for its commitment to responsible tourism, and the resort’s dazzling cultural storytelling experience, Wintjiri Wiru , being named as Oceania’s Leading Tourist Attraction. This is one of the most fiercely contended awards of the night, with Wintjiri Wiru beating the likes of the Daintree Rainforest , Great Barrier Reef , Hobbiton Movie Set and Sydney Opera House . Qantas Airways took home one of the biggest wins on the night, being named Oceania’s Leading Airline Brand in 2024. They stole the title from Air New Zealand, who has won the award for the last seven years running. In the aviation world, our very own Sydney Airport was crowned the best in Oceania, ParkRoyal Melbourne Airport won Oceania’s best airport hotel award for the fourth consecutive year, and Aspire Lounge Terminal One International Perth held onto its title as Oceania’s Leading Airport Lounge.  Outside of Australia, the idyllic Cook Islands claimed the Best Island Destination award for 2024, and we reckon that calls for a holiday.

You can check out the full list of winners on the World Travel Awards website here , with the regional winners going head-to-head in a grand final at the end of the year.

Here are some of the Oceania winners at the World Travel Awards 2024:

• Oceania’s Leading Airline Brand – Qantas Airways
• Oceania’s Leading Airport – Sydney Airport
• Oceania’s Leading Airport Hotel – ParkRoyal Melbourne Airport
• Oceania’s Leading Airport Lounge – Aspire Lounge Perth Airport Terminal One International
• Oceania’s Leading City Destination – Sydney
• Oceania’s Leading Cruise Line – Royal Caribbean International
• Oceania’s Leading Hotel – The Langham, Sydney
• Oceania’s Leading Island Destination – Cook Islands
• Oceania’s Leading New Hotel – W Sydney
• Oceania’s Leading Tourist Attraction – Wintjiri Wiru, Ayers Rock Resort, Uluru
• Oceania’s Responsible Tourism Award – Ayers Rock Resort, Uluru

And, here are some of the Australian winners at the World Travel Awards 2024:

• Australia’s Leading Boutique Hotel – Como The Treasury , Perth
• Australia’s Leading Hotel – Pan Pacific Melbourne
• Australia’s Leading Hotel Residences – The Langham , Gold Coast
• Australia’s Leading Hotel Suite – The Ritz-Carlton Suite, Melbourne
• Australia’s Leading Lifestyle Hotel – W Brisbane
• Australia’s Leading Lodge – Longitude 131º , Uluru
• Australia’s Leading Luxury Hotel – The Fullerton Hotel Sydney
• Australia’s Leading Resort – Oaks Cypress Lakes Resort, Pokolbin
• Australia’s Leading Retreat – Gaia Retreat and Spa , Brooklet

Stay in the loop: sign up for our free Time Out Sydney newsletter for more news, travel inspo and activity ideas, straight to your inbox.

Recommended:, sydney has ranked as one of the safest cities in the world for travellers., this is the most desirable sydney suburb (according to our readers)., and here’s how sydney ranked on oxford economics’ inaugural global cities index ..

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Wales breaking news plus weather and traffic updates (Monday, September 2)

All of the latest news from across Wales and further afield

• Updated 21:01, 2 SEP 2024

Hello, and welcome to WalesOnline's live blog for Monday, September 2. We'll be bringing you all of the latest news from across Wales - whether you're on the move, at home or at work - as well as the latest traffic and travel.

We'll also be keeping you informed of major news stories from the UK and overseas. Contribute to the live blog by posting your comments below, or tweet us @WalesOnline to share the news that's breaking in your area.

AI cameras to spot drivers on their phones in the UK

Motorists could face a hefty fine if they are caught on their phones while driving by new cameras. The artificial intelligence cameras have been designed to catch out drivers on their phones as well as not wearing their seatbelts.

National Highways and nine police forces are continuing to trial the new cameras from next week until March 2025. The forces using the cameras are in Durham, Greater Manchester, Humberside, Staffordshire, West Mercia, Northamptonshire, Wiltshire, Norfolk, Thames Valley and Sussex.

The cameras are made to capture footage of passing vehicles and to detect whether a driver is using their phone while driving or if someone in the car is not wearing a seatbelt. This is done through two photographs.

Photographs flagged up are then looked at by the police to determine if the photographs show someone committing an offence. Offences of driving while using a phone and not wearing a seatbelt can be punished with a £1,000 fine and six points.

Pontins cancelled bookings from people with Irish accents

Pontins turned away customers who they suspected were Irish Travellers over a five-year period. An investigation by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) found the holiday operator used a variety of tactics between 2013 and 2018 to prevent Travellers from attending their parks.

Pontins’ approach included turning people away if they suspected they were Irish Travellers due to their accent or surname. The EHRC investigation uncovered how Pontins’ practices were aimed at ensuring Travellers were not able to attend.

The investigation found 11 unlawful acts which discriminated against Irish Travellers in their report. They included introducing an electoral roll requirement in its booking terms and conditions as a disguised form of discrimination, publishing a list of Irish surnames on the company’s internal system titled “undesirable guests”, and monitoring calls within its contact centre and cancelling bookings made by people with an Irish accent or surname. You can read about the report in full here.

Speeding driver killed pedestrian after losing control

A BMW driver travelling at almost double the speed limit in poor weather lost control of his vehicle before aquaplaning into a layby and killing a man. Ricky Perkins, 32, was driving eastbound along the A4063 Aberkenfig bypass at 89mph when his car struck 49-year-old Byron Jeanes .

A sentencing hearing at Newport Crown Court on Monday was told the crash happened at 5.45am on January 20, 2021 in a 50mph zone near a busy motorway junction. Matthew Cobbe, prosecuting, said: “[Byron Jeanes] died as a result of a collision caused by the defendant dangerously driving.

"Mr Jeanes had been a pedestrian waiting for his friend in a lay-by. The defendant lost control of his vehicle driving far too quickly for the conditions.” You can read the full report from today's sentencing hearing here.

Police looking for missing 72-year-old man

South Wales Police are looking for 72-year-old Roger Jones who is missing from his home in Townhill, Swansea. On Monday evening the force asked for the public's assistance with their efforts to find Mr Jones, pictured below.

Mr Jones was last seen in the area of Pantycelyn Road at 9.15am on Monday. If anyone has seen or thinks they might have seen Mr Jones, or if they feel they have any helpful information to assist police, contact the force quoting reference number 2400294062.

Jack O'Sullivan's mum says she's had calls demanding ransom

The mother of a missing student says she has received messages claiming they know where her son is and demanding a ransom. Bristol university student Jack O'Sullivan’s mother Catherine said reading the messages is “hell” but she reads every one in the hope she can find her son.

Jack went missing on Saturday, March 2 after last being seen in the Hotwells area following a house party. His family continue to search for him and have offered a £20,000 reward for key information in their search.

In an interview with the BBC Catherine, originally from Neath, said she spends all day every day trying to find Jack. “I have had messages suggesting Jack is being held and asking for ransom for him,” she said.

“But what would anyone do in my situation? I have to read them, as bad as I know it is, putting myself through hell at times, but I can’t ignore anything.

"I go out daily. My day is planned around which direction I'm going to look next, until I run out of areas I can feasibly check. We basically climb fences, jump into ditches…it gives me the peace of mind that I know that area's covered. I'm Jack's mum, and my aim on this earth at the moment is to find Jack."

Woman accused of murdering child pictured for first time

The woman accused of murdering six-year-old Alexander Zurawski has been pictured for the first time. Karolina Zurawska appeared at Swansea Magistrates Court on Monday charged with Alexander's murder.

She was also charged with the attempted murder of a 67-year-old man, Krzysztof Siwi, on the same day, Thursday, August 29. Alexander was described as "a very kind child" in a tribute issued by his family alongside a photo of the smiling boy.

They said: "He loved playing with his little sister and playing with his dog ‘Daisy’. Alexander was always well behaved and never naughty. He was very clever and very mature for his age.

"He had great understanding of facts. Alexander was always helpful. Always eager to assist with cooking and cleaning. Alexander spoke both English and Polish and would often correct his parents with their English if they got words wrong. He was amazing."

The 41-year-old defendant, of Cwm Du Close in Gendros, Swansea, spoke only to confirm her identity during the hearing. She was remanded into custody to appear at Swansea Crown Court on Tuesday, September 3.

Bethan Peterson, headteacher of Whitestone Primary School in West Cross where Alexander was a pupil, described him as "a delightful, determined little boy whose tenacity and positive demeanour ensured his success in all he undertook".

Welsh hospital’s maternity unit closes for 'urgent' work

Maternity and neonatal services at the Princess of Wales Hospital in Bridgend will be closed for 12 weeks from Monday, September 2, for "urgent and essential improvement works". £1million is being invested in order to secure "the future of both units" and ensure that safe and effective care can continue to be offered to families. Read more here.

Police officer kicks wife down the stairs leaving her with broken back

A police officer has been found guilty of causing grievous bodily harm after he kicked his wife down the stairs leaving her with a broken back. Cardiff Crown Court had heard police constable Huw Orphan had been arguing with his police officer wife Amy Burley by text message before the attack in April 2020.

Read more here.

Man tries to flee after police called to Welsh beach

A man has been made to pay almost £1,000 after illegally gathering cockles in the Llanmadoc area on the Gower Peninsula. The illegal cockler fled the scene but officers found his car and apprehended him when he tried to move it to avoid the incoming tide.

Four flood alerts issued for Wales amid heavy showers and thunderstorms

Flood alerts have been issued for parts of Wales amid heavy showers and thunderstorms, with one issued for a whole county. On Monday morning, September 2, the Met Office warned that thunderstorms could cause flooding and disruption in places.

The flood alerts are:

• Dyfi catchment: Areas around the river Dyfi, from Dinas Mawddwy and Llanbrynmair to the estuary, including Machynlleth
• Leri catchment: Areas around the River Leri including Borth, Dol y Bont, Tal y Bont and other minor watercourses from Bont Goch to Glaspwll
• Glaslyn and Dwyryd catchment: Areas around the river Glaslyn and river Dwyryd, from Dyffryn Ardudwy to Nant Gwynant
• Anglesey catchment: Areas around the rivers across the whole of the island

Twenty-stone dad completely transformed his body to 'prove everyone wrong'

After looking back at holiday pictures of himself, a dad of two decided he needed to make serious changes in his life. Chris Prosser, 45, from Swansea not only wanted to lose weight but he had one specific goal in mind, to compete in his first bodybuilding competition. Not only did he complete his mission - losing over eight stone along the way - but he also won a trophy.

A4109 in Neath Port Talbot returned to normal following collision

The A4109 in both directions has re-opened with traffic returned to normal after the accident has cleared from Nant-Y-Cafn Business Park (Seven Sisters) to Ynys-Y-Bont (Crynant).

Police appeal for help in their search for missing 57-year-old person

Dyfed-Powys Police has appealed for help in their search for missing 57-year-old Christopher.

Christopher has been reported missing from their home in the Ystradgynlais area, according to the force.

Christopher is described as about 6ft 2inches tall, bald and of slim build. He is possibly wearing a blue/navy hooded RAAB puffer style jacket with a red zip, according to the force.

Anyone with information that could help, can get in contact with the police via:

• Direct message us on social media.
• Website: https://orlo.uk/FycBH
• Email: [email protected]
• Non-emergency contact number: 101

Quote reference: 64 of 2nd September.

Woman appears in court charged with murder of six-year-old boy

A woman has appeared in court charged with the murder of a six-year-old boy. The body of Alexander Zurawski was found at a house in Gendros, Swansea , on Thursday morning.

Single-headline Ofsted grades for schools to be scrapped in England

Single-headline Ofsted grades for schools will be scrapped with immediate effect in England, the UK Government has announced.

Previously, Ofsted awarded one of four headline grades to schools it inspects: outstanding, good, requires improvement and inadequate.

The announcement follows engagement with the sector and family of headteacher Ruth Perry, after a coroner's inquest found the Ofsted inspection process had contributed to her death.

Mrs Perry took her own life after an Ofsted report downgraded her Caversham Primary School in Reading from its highest rating, "outstanding", to its lowest rating, "inadequate", over safeguarding concerns.

Mrs Perry's sister, Professor Julia Waters, said: "We are delighted and relieved that the Government has decided to take this important and long-overdue step. Single-word headline judgments are dangerous and reductive. They are unpopular with parents and teachers, and their simplistic impact has made the daily job of improving school standards harder for everyone except the bureaucrats.

"The shame, injustice, and high-stakes consequences of an 'inadequate' judgement, together with the rude and intimidating conduct of the inspection itself, were the cause of my sister's mental deterioration and suicide. Single-word judgments are just the most visible feature of a fundamentally flawed inspection system. Ofsted's reign of terror has caused untold harm to headteachers and school staff for too long, with a negative impact on children's education."

For inspections this academic year in England, the Department for Education (DfE) said parents will see the four grades - outstanding, good, requires improvement and inadequate - given across the existing sub-categories: quality of education; behaviour and attitudes; personal development; leadership and management.

School report cards will be introduced from September 2025, which will "provide parents with a full and comprehensive assessment of how schools are performing and ensure that inspections are more effective in driving improvement", it added.

General strike in Israel sees closures and disruptions

A rare call for a general strike in Israel to protest against the government's failure to return hostages held in Gaza has led to closures and other disruptions around the country, including at its main international airport, AP has reported. However, the call was ignored in some areas, reflecting deep political divisions in the country. Hundreds of thousands of Israelis had poured into the streets late on Sunday in a show of grief and anger after six hostages were found dead in Gaza. The families and much of the public blamed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying they could have been returned alive in a deal with Hamas to end the nearly 11-month-old war.

New Met Office thunderstorm warning issued for Wales

The Met Office has issued a new yellow weather warning update for heavy rain and thunderstorms for Wales. The forecaster has warned that whilst many places will miss them, thunderstorms may cause flooding and disruption in places on Monday, September 2.

A4109 in Neath Port Talbot closed due to accident

The A4109 in both directions is currently closed with slow traffic due to accident from Nant-Y-Cafn Business Park (Seven Sisters) to Ynys-Y-Bont ( Crynant) in Neath Port Talbot.

M4 travelling eastbound now clear

The M4's J24 Coldra to J23A Magor travelling eastbound is now clear, as well as the M4 J28 Tredegar Park to J26 Malpas travelling eastbound.

Both roads were experiencing congestion earlier this morning.

Police probe video of man smashing Middlesbrough football supporters' bus window in Cardiff

Police are investigating after a video emerged showing a hooded man throwing an object that smashed a window of a football supporters' bus in Cardiff. The Middlesbrough fans' bus was parked while they enjoyed drinks in a pub during a visit to see their team play Cardiff City in Saturday's Championship clash.

A new vaccine will be given for the first time in Wales today

A new vaccine will be given for the first time in Wales on Monday with the hope it will save hundreds of lives each year.

The vaccine is aimed at protecting babies and older adults from the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) which kills between 400 and 600 adults each year, and leads to more than 1,000 babies needing hospital treatment.

Congestion on parts of the M4

There's currently congestion on the M4 this morning.

• M4 J24 Coldra to J23A Magor travelling eastbound.
• M4 J28 Tredegar Park to J26 Malpas travelling eastbound.

Traffic Wales has warned road users to allow additional time for their journey.

Slow traffic on A4055 in the Vale of Glamorgan

Slow traffic on the A4055 Cardiff Road between Eastbrook station (Eastbrook) and Redlands Road (Merrie Harrier Traffic lights, Penarth) in the Vale of Glamorgan. Travel time is 10 minutes.

UK Government launches probe into Oasis ticket prices

The Culture Secretary has described the inflated selling of Oasis tickets as "incredibly depressing" and announced that surge pricing will be included in a UK Government review of the ticket sales market.

There was outrage from Oasis fans after fans were asked to pay more than double the face value of standard tickets - from £148 to £355, on Ticketmaster.

Heavy traffic on M4 eastbound in Newport

There's heavy traffic on the M4 into the Brynglas Tunnel Eastbound before J26 A4051 (Malpas Road) in Newport this morning. Travel time is around 10 minutes.

Met Office forecast for Monday

There's potentially a changeable week ahead, according to the Met Office, with a risk of thunderstorms today. Here's the full forecast for Wales on Monday:

Rather cloudy during the morning with showery outbreaks of rain, some heavy and possibly thundery, slowly easing. Some brighter breaks during the afternoon, although further thundery showers may also develop. In any sunshine it will feel warm and humid. Maximum temperature 21 °C."

Good morning

Welcome to the WalesOnline daily blog.

The breaking news team are here ready to bring you all the latest news, weather and travel from across the region.

Time to get started.

• Most Recent

research | Aug 29, 2024

Do Homepages Still Matter?

With social and search traffic down, news outlets aim to get readers back on their platforms

by Mark Caro | LocalNewsIni

The homepage was the entry point, the digital equivalent of the front page, before social media and search engines became the dominant means for readers to find content. But now that X/Twitter, Facebook and Google are directing less traffic to news sites—all while AI summaries to online queries allow readers to bypass news links altogether—news organizations have rediscovered the value of keeping readers on their own platforms.

Or as Local Media Association Chief Innovative Officer Frank Mungeam puts it: “When you build your sand castle on someone else’s beach, ultimately it’s their beach, they can change the rules, and the tide can come in and wipe out your work.”

Can the homepage be resurrected as a news seeker’s destination? Should news organizations devote more resources to an outlet’s landing page? Or has the homepage outlived its usefulness, with news outlets better off pursuing more effective ways of attracting readers?

With digital advertising down and local news business models prioritizing subscriptions and reader retention, the stakes are high for these organizations to get readers back in the habit of consuming news on their own platforms. Yet homepage traffic continues to fall.

The Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2024 , released in June, shows that only 22% of respondents worldwide identify news websites or apps as their main online news source—down from 32% in 2018. Younger respondents in particular “are showing a weaker connection with news brands than they did in the past,” the report states.

The Reuters report finds that more readers are finding news through search engines and aggregators (33%) and social media (29%) than via direct access to the websites. The report also notes that mobile alerts, which constitute another 9% of respondents accessing news, “are also generated by aggregators and portals, adding to the concerns about what might happen next.”

This trend looks even more ominous when you consider the age groups of these news consumers. “The habit of going to a news site to get your news is an older information seeker’s habit,” Mungeam says. “Younger information seekers are spending their time on social [media] and bumping into the news and have the view that the news should find them.”

Some homepages are created with more effort and thought than others. The New York Times homepage retains the feel of the print newspaper while boasting its own look and story hierarchy. It updates and shuffles stories frequently, as befits a national destination for breaking news and in-depth stories.

Local news outlets, though, lack the Times’ audience numbers and budgets, and many take a more formulaic approach to their homepages. It’s not unusual for a big-city newspaper’s homepage to have a plug-and play feel, with stories slotted into a set template where the lead headline size doesn’t vary no matter whether the story is the end of Joe Biden’s presidential run or the funeral of a sheriff’s deputy. The page also may offer an automated “Latest Headlines” rail that mixes local stories with celebrity divorces and whatever other wire pieces are coming through the feed.

“They all have ads,” Poynter Institute media business analyst Rick Edmonds notes, “and you can claim that the ads are pretty disruptive of a good reading experience.”

Given the declining importance of these landing pages amid the declining resources of local news outlets, some in the industry view skimping on the homepage as a rational decision.

Mungeam—who previously oversaw digital content at Tegna, Gannett (briefly) and KGW-TV in Portland, Ore.—recalls “micromanaging hour by hour” his outlets’ homepages and spending “lots of time and money” to design and redesign the site. “We spent a lot of time paying attention to homepage design and ranking and ordering of the homepage because direct traffic to the homepage in some cases was half of the total traffic,” he says.

Those numbers are way down, so although an outlet’s most loyal audience may still seek out the homepage, “I’d be careful about spending too many calories on it,” Mungeam says.

But Tom Rosenstiel, professor of the practice at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at University of Maryland, argues that homepages should maintain high standards even in the face of declining readership and relevance.

“In the same way that every headline should get similar care or every story should be carefully proofread, your homepage matters because it’s something that you do,” Rosenstiel says. “If only X percentage of people look at my shoes, do I decide it’s not important if I tie my shoes?”

Part of the issue, he says, is perception. If the homepage is ignoring a massive breaking story or highlighting something frivolous because no human is present to override the system, that’s a problem. “People form impressions of a news operation from many different cues,” Rosenstiel says. “What they’re most likely to notice is something that they think is wrong.”

The homepage trends affect online-only outlets as well. “People going directly to the home page is a small percentage,” Edmonds says of poynter.org, the homepage of which tends to offer a couple days’ worth of stories and columns about the news industry. Edmonds says the site’s weekly internal reports indicate that about 10% of traffic comes to the homepage directly, and about 15% are finding Poynter stories via links on the site. The rest of the traffic comes via search and social media despite the downward trends in both areas.

“Upgrading the homepage does make sense,” Edmonds said. “Part of that is deciding what you’re going to publish. The name of the game is what your own staff produces.”

“It’s a challenging time.”

Digital-only news operations didn’t come into existence with a print product to emulate, and younger ones arrived at a time when homepages were considered less important than other audience drivers. The six-year-old nonprofit Block Club Chicago receives just 12 percent of its traffic from readers visiting the homepage, executive editor/co-founder Stephanie Lulay says. Yet despite this relatively small percentage, “our homepage continues to be a valuable tool to drive traffic to our news site in an era when we need all the tools. How readers are finding us is always changing. It’s a challenging time.”

The Block Club Chicago homepage features a lead story in the top center flanked by four neighborhood-identified stories, played with equal weight. Beneath that is a “Latest News” section promoting six time-stamped stories. Lulay says “a sizable chunk of readers” utilize this tab, “which is only accessible from the homepage. Readers who access our homepage, they’re coming there to see what’s new.”

Block Club Chicago also hosts homepages for the various neighborhoods it covers, such as Englewood, Chatham, Auburn Gresham on the South Side or Jefferson Park, Portage Park, Norwood Park on the Northwest Side. Perhaps more important, the organization sends out twice-weekly newsletters about each neighborhood, written by the reporter who covers it, as well as topic-related newsletters, such as about arts and culture. Then there’s the twice-a-day Block Club Chicago general newsletter offering morning and afternoon headlines.

“We want to meet our readers where they are,” Lulay says. “Our neighborhood newsletters are tremendously popular, and the homepage mirrors and complements that effort.”

In a way the newsletter has become another kind of homepage: a curated collection of headlines where readers can discover stories. Most newsletters are less expansive than homepages, though, with fewer portholes to the various sections and subjects. Plus, discovering a newsletter in your inbox is a different experience from habitually clicking on a homepage in search of the latest news. The news is finding you rather than the other way around.

“You want to be transitioning [readers] so you have a first-party data relationship with them, whether it’s alerts or a newsletter, so you can push without relying on them to pull,” Mungeam says.

Rosenstiel, though, warns of one potential newsletter pitfall. “Newsletters are also not a singular solution because there comes a point where I have reached critical mass and think I have too many newsletters,” he says.

“I have wondered about that,” Edmonds says of newsletters possibly reaching a saturation point. “Is it going to max out? I don’t think it has yet.”

Lulay agrees that the newsletter serves its own distinct function. “The newsletter I would not say has become the homepage,” the Block Club Chicago editor says. “That said, newsletters today are more important than ever. There is no better way for us to directly reach our readers. That’s why you see so many publishers putting so much effort into them.”

A query to the American Journalism Project about the state of homepages yielded this emailed statement from Chief Investment Officer Michael Ouimette: “Successful models for local journalism depend on developing strong, direct relationships with communities. Increasingly, as the local journalism field continues to evolve, this success starts with creating habit-forming, engaging, unique experiences for readers, through products such as valuable newsletters, engaging websites, text messaging services, and other models.”

Where Audiences and Platforms Meet

The definition of “homepage” is slippery given the rise of news consumption on phones vs. laptop and desktop computers. The Pew Research Center reported in 2019 that Americans already were more likely to get their news through a mobile device (57%) than on a desktop or laptop computer (30%). A 2022 news consumption survey conducted by the German data company Statista showed that 56% of U.S. consumers read online news on a smartphone that year, doubling the figure from 2013. Also in 2022, 41% of U.S. consumers read online news on a desktop or laptop computer, down from 71% in 2013, with tablets tallying 17% of U.S. readers in 2022, 16% in 2013.

“When I visit the New York Times, I go most often on my phone or my iPad to the New York Times app,” Rosenstiel says. “Is that their homepage? Yeah, it’s the homepage of their app.”

So even though editors in newsrooms tend to work on desktop computers, their readers are often coming to the news by other means, and that phone display is unlikely to resemble a newspaper front page.

“From a purely quantitative standpoint, you should make sure the front page of your mobile app is as good as you can make it, as smart as you can make it, as helpful as you can make it,” Rosenstiel says. “The mobile experience is the front page for many people.”

That means the app should be easy to navigate, shouldn’t shunt you off to sections you don’t want to read, shouldn’t fill the screen with pop-ups and shouldn’t create additional hurdles for you to leap. “It’s annoying if someone sends you something through social [media] or an email newsletter, and you click on the story, and the site doesn’t recognize you as a subscriber and asks you to sign in,” Rosenstiel says.

Josh Brandau, CEO and co-founder of the artificial intelligence optimization platform NotaAI, considers the discussion about how readers connect with news to be crucial to the industry’s future. “Asking about homepage importance is the right question, because it’s really a question about where audiences and platforms meet,” he says.

Brandau recalls wrestling with the homepage issue while overseeing growth for the Los Angeles Times’ publishing platforms as its chief marketing officer from 2019 through 2022. A major challenge in maintaining the Times’ homepages, he says, was dealing with a “geographic problem”—namely that Orange County constituted a “dead zone” between Los Angeles and San Diego, home of the then-Times-owned Union-Tribune. (Los Angeles Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong sold the Union-Tribune to Alden Global Capital in July 2023.)

“It was like: Who’s serving this part of Southern California?” Brandau says. “We are serving it at both papers, but we’re not expressing how much we’re serving it on the homepage for our loyal readers. So we should do that.”

The company explored creating customized homepages that featured “stories based on geo location of browser and mobile so that you could see stories that were related to you in the community that you were in when you were in it,” he says. “The promise was to get stories curated to each individual city within greater L.A.”

But that plan didn’t come to fruition while he was there. “It was contentious,” Brandau says. “Editorial ultimately felt that it should only be the domain of the homepage editor.”

Brandau envisions news publishers applying a new level of customization now possible through data collection and AI. “You have the opportunity to personalize the homepage just like all other points of commerce try to personalize their homepages to get as much engagement from you as possible,” Brandau says.

And what constitutes a “homepage” keeps expanding.

“We are at an extraordinary point where we have access to more stories than ever, across more media and platforms than ever, and that exponential increase in optionality is also coupled with a breakthrough in technology with AI,” he says. “That makes the front page every format and every page.

“Take the morning walk with the dog and listen to the story, transition to a video of it while you’re having cornflakes and shoot a social post featuring that story to a friend. All curated. All accessible. All interoperable. All created at the same time by the professional telling the story in whatever source the story started in.”

The key, then, may be for news organizations to strike a balance between pulling readers to their platforms while also pushing the content out into the world.

“The internal focus on the ‘homepage’ has been outdated and out of step with the audience for some time,” Mungeam says. “The finding methods for news are now more intermediated and indirect (search, social and aggregators); less brand-specific (especially among younger, non-brand-loyal news consumers); and far more mobile-first than desktop-oriented. So, as with every other shift in audience news-seeking behavior, it’s essential for newsrooms to refresh their focus and practices to better match how and where their audiences find them.”

Article image by Anna Keibalo used under Unsplash license ( Unsplash )

About the author

Caro is an author ( The Foie Gras Wars , The Special Counsel: The Mueller Report Retold ) and former longtime Chicago Tribune culture reporter, columnist and critic. He talks with prominent creative people on his weekly Caropop podcast and writes for Chicago magazine and other outlets. He was a journalism Cherub at Northwestern’s National High School Institute a long time ago.

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