Time for Christmas

Here is a wonderful seasonal take on time by Steven Appleby, a regular in The Guardian UK newspaper on Saturdays (this one appearing on 12th December 2010). Enjoy.

Quantum Time Travel (By Post)

A Letter in New Scientist, 4 December 2010:
This letter is a test of quantum time travel. I, in your past, am sending you, in my future, a message. When you print this, in my future, you will, by post selection, be sending me, in your past, a message telling me what to type when I have finished my cup of coffee. PS: It works.
(Andy Biddulph, Burton on Trent, Staffordshire, UK)

World in a Hundred Objects Timepieces

The BBC's History of the World in 100 Objects included few mechanical devices but the need to measure time has meant that two did just that. They were Object 62, a Hebrew astrolabe, and Object 91, the ship's chronometer from HMS Beagle.

Solar System a Little Bit Older

Analysis of isotope decay in a 2004 meteorite has suggested that the solar system may be a million years or so older (give or take rather a lot) than previously thought according to research at Arizona State University. See 'Solar system slips back in time', New Scientist, 28 August 2010, p16.

Big Ben Facelift

Three men have abseiled down the tower that houses Big Ben to repair any damage to the clock faces. The trio descend each of the four sides of the clock face at a height of around 315ft (96m).
Each clock face is 23 ft (7m) in diameter, while there are a total of 312 pieces of opal glass.
Two height safety specialists abseiled on the clock faces initially. Then specialist heritage glazer Tony McGilbert abseiled to evaluate the repairs to the fragile glass fascia panels within the clock faces.
The men wore ear defenders as the clock continued to strike as they carried out the work, which was expected to last all day and their equipment was attached to them to ensure it cannot fall onto the ground below.
See http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-10950547 for more.

ACES - The Most Accurate Clock in Space

A clock ensemble, ACES (Atomic Clock Ensemble in Space), is to fly to the International Space Station in 2014. This caesium clock, because it will be affected only by microgravity, will be 100 times the accuracy of GPS clocks and will be a common reference point for ground based atomic clocks which could reveal if a physical 'constant' called alpha is not constant after all. (See 'Space station to host super-clock', New Scientist, 31 July 2010, p5)

Longest Tennis Match

Wimbledon 2010 has seen the longest tennis match in the history of the sport between American tennis player John Isner and Frenchman Nicolas Mahut.
The record-breaking contest lasted for a total of 11 hours and five minutes - a punishing 665 minutes. The battle concluded after play stretched over three days.
The 6ft 9in Isner won 3 sets to 2, with the last set being won with after a staggering total of 70 games to 68.
The end came as Mahut approached the net and Isner made a passing shot. Barely believing the match had finished, Isner almost back-flipped on the lawn before standing up and grasping his head between his hands.
Key stats of the match include 138 games in deciding set, 112 Isner aces and 103 Mahut aces.

Gravity Clock App

This app by Joerg Piringer visualizes the passage of time by the permanent destruction and reconstruction of the clock-face.
In analog mode, each second, the hand breaks a number out of the dial and lets it drop to the floor where it gets buried by the following numbers and eventually withers away to make room for the endless succession of time. The digital mode is not dissimilar. There is also an alarm facility, a levitate mode reverses gravity, a night mode reduces brightness and the colour of the second hand can be changed by tapping the centre of the clock.

You can watch a video of it at http://joerg.piringer.net/gravityclock

Introducing Time: A graphic guide

This relaunched guide to Time by Craig Callender and Ralph Edney is a fully illustrated fun tome including arguments between Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking - time is no barrier for this book. It might seem lightweight but it tackles some seriously heavyweight concepts.

More timeMusic

As the timeMusic page on the timeCrazy website evidences, there is much music in which time features significantly. Two further gems that should probably make it onto the page somehow are 'Most of the Time' by Bob Dylan (on the 'Oh Mercy' album) and 'Time After Time' by Ozzy Osbourne (on the 'No More Tears' album), both of them really impressive.

Mind out of Time - Exhibition in London

The GX gallery in London (see www.gxgallery.com) is hosting an exhibition of new works by Ed Gray from 12 June to 6 July, 2010. What happens to an artist when he returns to his muse after being away from her for so long? Paintings from Cape Town, Bangkok, Tokyo and London explain.

Chinese Astronomical Clock

The BBC’s History of the World in 100 Objects includes this remarkable astronomical clock, one of only two known examples worldwide. Its counterpart, in the Forbidden City at Beijing, differs from it only in minor details.
The outer brass rings can be used for telling the time in both Western and Chinese cultures. The inner brass ring marks the seasons. Each day this ring - together with the main dial - turns clockwise through one degree, thus making a full revolution in a year.
On the main face of the clock is a chart showing the brighter stars visible from Southern China. On the chart, the most prominent feature is the Milky Way (Tianhe ? the "Celestial River") but in all around 850 stars are represented by small red circles. These stars are joined into about 160 groups, representing the most significant of the traditional Chinese constellations.
The movement is Chinese, but it is based on an English design of around AD 1790. Parts of the movement, such as the short pendulum are unusual, suggesting that the maker was not copying a movement but working from sketches or notes and improvised where they were inadequate.

Designs in Stainless Clock

This clock by Designs in Stainless was displayed at the 2008 Chelsea Flower show
The clock is manufactured in stainless steel with brass fittings, and the clock hands are driven by a water wheel and cog system.
It is priced at a scary £18,500 but given its size and quality this is probably reasonable.
See http://www.designs-in-stainless.co.uk/bespoke.htm

Asteroid/Comet Dinosaur Extinction Confirmed

An international panel of experts has strongly endorsed evidence that a space impact was behind the mass extinction event that killed off the dinosaurs.
Their review of the evidence confirms the view (see timeStory - Chapter 6) that the extinction was caused by a massive asteroid or comet smashing into Earth at Chicxulub on Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula.
See http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8550504.stm for more details.

Time Travel Timelines Illustration

This is a
beautiful
timeline
illustration
in the
infographic book
'The Visual
Miscellaneum'
published in
October 2009.

Click on the
image to enlarge it
or see more detail
about it at the
web page below.
http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/timelines/

‘Time’, a new book by Eva Hoffman

Eva Hoffman’s book, ‘Time’, is about our changing relationship with time and covers the physics, biology and neuroscience involved.

The Backwards Novel by Tom Gauld

Tiger and Police in Time Loop

According to the UK tabloid newspaper the Daily Mail "Officers first attempted to interview the golfer when he returned from hospital. They were told he was asleep and to come back yesterday but were then informed that he would again be unavailable and they should try today".

Oxford Railway Station is Where It's At

If Einstein and Bohr were alive today they'd be heading for Oxford (England) railway station where the station announcer had clearly made a relativistic-quantum breakthrough in feeling able to announce "To speed up time, please use all available doors to enter the train."

From Eternity to Here

A new book, From Eternity to Here: The quest for the ultimate theory of time, by Sean Carroll, suggests an eternal "mother space-time" producing a multiverse of baby universes some of which will have an initial entropy level that means time flows like it does in our universe. Craig Callender, a philosopher of science, who reviews the book in the 23rd January issue of New Scientist is not so sure. Sean Carroll meanwhile answers some readers' questions about time in that same New Scientist issue with more Q&As at www.newscientist.com/blogs/culturelab.

New Spiral Clock on the Market

Two entrepreneurs from Brixton, London, Will Aspinall and Neil Lambeth, have designed and are building and selling a fun spiral and ball clock. A bit pricey as yet but a fun 'twist' nevertheless on the regular clock. Links to short video clips are:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8461652.stm?ls
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2wdHf-5fW8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIf9YVkiPHw

And the web site where you can find out more and buy one is http://www.aspiralclocks.com/

Photo of the Universe Furthest Back in Time

The Hubble Space Telescope has captured an image of the universe just 600 to 800 million years after the Big Bang.
The photo, which combines an August 2009 infrared image with an optical image taken in 2004, reveals galaxies never seen before.
The newly identified galaxies are invisible in the visible part of the light spectrum, but stand out clearly in the infrared images.
Scientists, who released the photo at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society on Tuesday, said the nearest galaxy in the image was an estimated one billion light years away.
The furthest - faint red specks seen in the image - were 13 billion light years away, meaning their light left them just 600 to 800 million years after the Big Bang.
The scientists said the photo was the most complete picture of the early universe so far and not only showed galaxies with stars that were already hundreds of millions of years old, but also the unmistakable primordial signs of the first cluster of stars.

All Change for Doctor Who and the Decade

So the turn of the decade sees the BBC's favourite Timelord, Doctor Who, morphing from David Tennant to Matt Smith. And the real 'Master', writer and producer Russell T Davies, finishes too. Tennant's final line, "I don't want to go", perhaps spoke for both of them, leaving Matt and new 'Master', Stephen Moffatt, much to live up to.