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Doctor Who has his TARDIS and Marty McFly had his DeLorean but now scientists in Russia could be one step closer to inventing a time machine in real life.

An experiment in quantum physics has apparently defied the second law of thermodynamics, which governs the direction of time from past to future.

Experts at the Moscow Institute of Physics & Technology(MIPT) have reported the findings in what is a considered to be a major breakthrough in the field.

The "time machine" consists of a basic quantum computer made up of electron "qubits" which can be modified.

Physicists observed the qubits apparently shifting backwards in time from a state of chaos to an ordered state.

The effect has been likened to a broken rack of pool balls scattered around a table and then travelling in reverse to return to their original state in the triangle.

Dr Gordey Lesovik, lead researcher and head of the Laboratory of the Physics of Quantum Information at the Moscow Institute of Physics & Technology(MIPT), said: "We have artificially created a state that evolves in a direction opposite to that of the thermodynamic arrow of time."

The "time machine" consists of a basic quantum computer made up of electron "qubits".

These are units of information described by a "one", a "zero", or a mixed "superposition" of both.

In the first experiment, the qubits became an increasingly complex changing pattern of zeros and ones, which created chaos.

Another program then modified the state of the computer to evolve "backwards" from chaos to order.

The qubits then work in the opposite way, from complex to simple, and therefore order was restored.

Scientists were delighted to discover an initial success rate for "time reversal" of 85% - but while the experiment is making waves in the world of physics, it is unlikely to create a real-life Tardis any time soon.