News

Is 'Back to the Future' scientifically possible?

Published: 21 October 2015

It’s 'Back to the Future' day: “In Back to the Future Part II, Marty McFly travels to October 21, 2015, to save his children, yet to be born in Back to the Future's 1985.” (Source: CNN)

Journalists looking for comments can talk to Alex Maloney, professor of physics at McGill:

“Back to the Future was a great movie which brings up many interesting scientific issues.  Although Einstein's theory of general relativity seems to allow time travel under very special circumstances, it appears that the effects of quantum mechanics make time travel impossible.”
- Alex Maloney

Alex Maloney, Associate Professor of Physics & William Dawson Scholar, Department of Physics, McGill University
Expertise: Black holes, string theory, particle physics, cosmology and the emergence of space-time in quantum gravity.
Contact: Maloney [at] physics.mcgill.ca

 

Back to top