What if Einstein Was Wrong? Scientists Discover Particles That Travel Faster Than Light and Into the Past

Welcome to the Club of the Impossible: Particles That Could Break Time

In a twist straight out of a movie (but without CGI), scientists are proposing the existence of particles that are not only faster than light… but could also travel back in time. Yes, you read that right: back. In. Time.

These little gems are called tachyons, and for decades they’ve been treated like the “crazy cousin” of physics. But a new study published in Physical Review D suggests we might need to start taking them seriously. And no, not because they’re going to kill us all—though if they could, they might do it before you finish reading this.

What the Heck Is a Tachyon (or How to Lose a Race Before It Starts)?

Tachyons are hypothetical particles—meaning we haven’t actually seen them in real life, kind of like punctuality in Latin America—that, according to some theories, always move faster than light.

First proposed in 1967 by physicist Gerald Feinberg, tachyons would have imaginary mass (yes, like your motivation to go to the gym) and exist outside the usual rules of the universe. Although never detected, they’ve fueled countless hours of arguments among physicists, with cold pizza and existential dread included.

👉 Want a simple explanation? Imagine a race between particles. They all start at the same time and sprint ahead, respecting relativity. Suddenly… the tachyon appears: it already crossed the finish line, came back, took your sneakers, and said, “Hurry up, I already won.”

It’s like your ex blocking you before you even think about texting them. A trip to the past… with trauma included.

The New Study: How to Hack the Universe Without Einstein Haunting You

A group of researchers—probably with more caffeine than common sense—tackled the age-old question: how can something faster than light not make all of physics explode?

Their answer was elegant and über-nerdy: redefine quantum rules. They modified something called “Hilbert space” (don’t worry, you don’t need to know what that is—just know it’s where the quantum magic happens). With this little “tweak,” they made tachyons fit into the framework without destroying relativity.

It’s like discovering you can put pineapple on pizza… and it still tastes good. (POLL TIME: Are you Team pineapple or Team why-the-heck-would-you-put-pineapple-on-pizza?)

This breakthrough was published in a journal so serious that just flipping through it might make your eyes bleed from the math. But here’s what matters: it’s a clue that the universe may be more flexible (and weird) than we thought.

What If a Particle Can Send Stuff Back in Time? Spoiler: Lots of Trouble.

Let’s say tachyons exist and can send messages or interactions backward in time. What could go wrong? Short answer: EVERYTHING.

Our basic idea of cause and effect collapses. In a normal universe, you slip because you stepped on a banana peel. In a tachyon universe, you slipped before someone even dropped the banana.

😵‍💫 Yeah, just as weird as your déjà vu last week.

This leads to what physicists call “temporal paradoxes.” One famous example is the “tachyonic anti-telephone,” where someone sends a message to the past to stop themselves from sending it. Got a headache? Same here. It’s like deleting a WhatsApp message before you even type it. Or telling your teacher, “My dog ate my homework”… when you never even started it.

If this were anime, we’d be Eren using the Attack Titan’s power to manipulate time. But it’s not anime. It’s physics. And still just as mind-blowing.

So What Does It Mean? Is the Quantum Apocalypse Coming?

Nope, don’t worry. You don’t need to build a bunker or study quantum physics to stay alive (though the second one would seriously upgrade your Tinder bio).

But it does mean that if tachyons exist, we’d need to rewrite several pages of the laws of the universe.

Since childhood we’ve been told nothing travels faster than light. That time only moves in one direction. That the past is the past and that's it… that's it, that's it, that's it, huh! 🎧🎶 Well… tachyons basically spit on that and say: “LOL, cute laws.”

That doesn’t mean everything’s wrong. Just that there may be deeper layers—like when you realize your favorite show had hidden messages all along (yes, I’m looking at you, Mr. Robot). In those layers, we might find answers to even crazier questions: What is dark energy? Why is the universe expanding? Are Peruvians really the only ones who are late to everything?

For now, it’s just theory. But one so well-built that no one can ignore it.

Louis CK and the Real Time Travel Dilemma

In his bit “Time Machine,” Louis CK jokes about what he’d do if he could travel through time. Spoiler: he wouldn’t go back to kill Hitler, like his friend claimed. His plan is darker, more disturbing… and very “Louis”: he’d use the time machine to do something so traumatic that Hitler would never become a dictator in the first place. Why? Because humans don’t always use power to fix things—sometimes we use it to channel our own misery, with history-altering side effects.

And in the middle of all that madness, he drops a brutal truth:

“I wouldn’t even use the time machine. I’d just let it sit in my house and put a drink on it.”

What does this have to do with tachyons? Simple: having the power to bend time doesn’t mean we know how to use it. Sometimes, we just want to relive our mistakes… or reshape them in our favor. Whether it’s a physicist with an elegant theory or a comedian with a devastating joke, the big question remains:

Are we really ready to change the past… or just trying to get revenge on it?

🎬 Watch the full monologue on YouTube: Laugh. Cringe. Then come back and ask yourself if you really want that time machine.

Now You:

What do you think about the possibility that particles could travel faster than light and into the past? Would they be a blessing… or the beginning of a cosmic disaster?

Drop your thoughts in the comments and share this article on your socials to keep the conversation going. 🚀