OT, but I saw this in the science links and it is worth putting up as an example of really bad science reporting (in this case on relativity principles) from Fox. To be fair to Fox, many news outlets are terrible at this sort of thing, but this is the most craptacular gem I’ve seen in a long time.

Time Travel Is Possible, Says Stephen Hawking

foxnews.com

Famed astrophysicist Stephen Hawking believes humans are capable of time travel — and he’s not afraid to let everyone know.

Really? Notice the fear terms - A lone genius is about to go all anti-establishment! Hawking is of course a genius. but look at the packaging.

Claiming he is not as concerned about being labelled crazy as he once was, Hawking has publicly aired his second startling theory in two weeks, after last week claiming it was “entirely reasonable” to assume aliens existed.

Wow man this guy is really open minded and a brave thinker, not like those scientific establishment types! Of course he is brilliant, but he is also part of the establishment in reality.

Preparing for the debut of his Discovery documentary, Stephen Hawking’s Universe, which screens next week, Hawking said he believed humans could travel millions of years into the future and repopulate their devastated planet.

Ruhro… Did Fox stop to wonder why Hawking would think such a thing is necessary? Of course not!

Hawking said once spaceships were built that could fly faster than the speed of light,

NOTHING GOES FASTER THAN LIGHT IN NORMAL SPACETIME. NOTHING. There is no way Hawking said that. If you tortured him after giving him a head injury he would not say that.

a day on board would be equivalent to a year on Earth. That’s because — according to Einstein — as objects accelerate through space, time slows down around them.

OK let’s just say it’s relativistic speeds. Sure. This is well known - since 1905.

Which also means that Hawking’s theory only applies to moving forwards through time.

It’s Einsteins theory.

“Time travel was once considered scientific heresy, and I used to avoid talking about it for fear of being labelled a crank,” he said in Stephen Hawking’s Universe.

Once again the brave meme of the lone scientist bucking the establishment… with an established theory that has been proven true in countless ways since 1905.

I wonder if Fox will get back to what worries Hawking enough that he thinks sending such a mission to go out and then repopulate the Earth would be a good thing? Of course, Hawking would be the first to tell you we don’t have anything near the technology to do that yet.