Universal / Everett Collection This explains why the DeLorean fad never caught on.

Discovery News reports that scientists in Hong Kong have ruled out the possibility of time travel by proving that nothing can travel faster than the speed of light. Which is funny, because “faster than the speed of light” is exactly how quickly our dreams were just crushed.

According to Discovery:

“The possibility of time travel was raised 10 years ago when scientists discovered superluminal — or faster-than-light — propagation of optical pulses in some specific medium, the team said. It was later found to be a visual effect, but researchers thought it might still be possible for a single photon to exceed light speed.”

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But thanks to one particularly determined professor, Du Shengwang, the research team at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology has proved that particular theory (or, rather, hope) wrong. They say their research, which was published in the journal Physical Review Letters, shows that even single photons–the smallest particle of light — travel at the same maximum speed. In other words, time travel will remain in the domain of dreams and science fiction.

In a related note, the word “Scientists” is now synonymous with “Dream Killers.”

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