Searching for eternity

The essence of time and the question of eternity has puzzled the minds of mankind since the earliest years of philosophy and science, and the quest to understand both the beginning and the end of all things has given rise to the deepest questions our civilisation has asked itself. The search for the fabric of time, the quintessence of cause and effect, the nature of how each second passes is the driving force behind the latest explorations in physics, revealing secrets and revelations with each discovery.

Time is something which seems immutable, constantly marching forwards, with each day separated into the regularity of hours and minutes, and each minute carved into seconds, which in turn are split into ever-decreasing quantities. The zeniths of the physics of time have, however, proven this has never been the case. When viewed through the prism of outer and inner space, we find time be as complex, as it is fragile, and as flexible as it is endlessly surprising.

Einstein’s theory of relativity states that the higher the gravity, the slower time passes. Indeed, the passage of time is dependent on location, due to the fact that the dimension of space-time isn’t a flat or linear plane. Rather, it curves magnificently, meaning the closer an object is to a centre of immense gravitational pull, the more rapidly the clock ticks. This is why astronauts age ever so slightly differently than those of us here on terra firma, albeit by a matter of microseconds, having been marginally liberated by the tightening time-space curve of the gravity of Earth.

If we are to gain an understanding of the mechanics of time, and as such, understand the concept of eternity, it seems likely the answers will be sourced from the ground-breaking and ever-evolving realm of quantum physics. By studying the minutiae of the fabric of the universe as we perceive it, the bigger picture slowly manifests itself, glimpse by tantalising glimpse.

Recent years saw major breakthroughs in quantum mechanics and the science of time, with physicists challenging, and seemingly breaking, the laws of thermodynamics, something which up until now was thought impossible. Using a quantum computer, a singular simulated particle was reverted from an entropic to an orderly state, essentially sent back in time by fractions of a millisecond. Such miniscule yet gargantuan steps as this throw open myriad doors of possibility and suggest the requirement of a total paradigm shift of how we understand the behaviour of particles in time and space.

The theory of general relativity allows room for concepts such as eternity, the stopping of the clocks, and even the reversal of time, and it seems that science is just beginning to walk a path leading to these concepts being understood and utilised in all their magnificence. latinum, that most noble of metals, originated with the exceptional collision of two neutron stars in a distant corner of the Universe, where gravity is extreme. Consequently, platinum comes from a place where time is suspended. It hurtled to Earth in a meteor shower more than 3.5 billion years ago carrying with it its own dimension of time – the Platinum Moment.

La Prairie