It would be interesting to see how many of these people are religious, too.

Perhaps inspired by TV favourites such as Doctor Who and Ashes to Ashes, nearly a third of Britons (30%) believe that time travel is actually possible. The results were revealed in a survey, launched at the start of National Science and Engineering Week (11-20 March) by Birmingham Science City, which aimed to see just how blurred the lines between science and fiction really are.

Other findings included:
1. Over a fifth of adults incorrectly believe light sabres exist.
2. Nearly a quarter (24%) of people are wrong in their belief that humans can be teleported.
3. Nearly 50% of adults wrongly believe that memory-erasing technology exists.
4. More than 40% of people incorrectly believe that hover boards exist.
5. Nearly one fifth (18%) of adults have the incorrect view that they can see gravity.




  1. Suntan says:

    Would observing the effect of gravity count?

  2. Lou says:

    That’s how W got elected twice.

  3. Sea Lawyer says:

    17% of Britons in the 18th century believed that generating energy from nuclear fission was possible. The types of polls are dumb.

    Interesting that 20% of women wanted all diseased to be cured. I guess they are too dumb to understand that disease keeps population sizes in balance.

  4. howard beale says:

    As I was walking down the street one day
    A man came up to me and asked me what the time was that was
    on my watch, yeah
    And I said Does anybody really know what a Delayed choice quantum eraser can do?

    I fear the US would not do any better on this set of questions.

  5. Yankinwaoz says:

    This survey smells of BS.

  6. Rob says:

    Bullshit
    Bullshit
    Bullshit

    This “Study” REEKS! of questions just BEGGING those answering to screw with their “testers”
    at every turn……

    I know I would….

    What a fucking insult to anyone who is taking this “test” or “Questionare”

  7. I was going to complain that they must have interviewed nerds until I saw the hoverboard statistic. They must have just polled retarted people. The US gets unfairly pigeonholed as being the center of idiocy but I don’t think this is very representative of England as a whole.

  8. alt173 says:

    “It would be interesting to see how many of these people are religious, too.”

    Yah, because clearly ‘religion’ is to blame for *everything* stupid in the world… Please, keep such asinine, historically inaccurate, bigoted quips to yourself.

  9. cjohnson says:

    But time travel is possible! We are all traveling through time at about one second per second!

  10. The Wrong Guy says:

    #8: So it’s ok to debate the existence of the things mentioned in the article but not God? Sounds like you’re being pretty defensive for some reason.

  11. Mr. Fusion says:

    1. Over a fifth of adults incorrectly believe light sabres exist.
    Ya, so almost 80% haven’t seen Star Wars.

    2. Nearly a quarter (24%) of people are wrong in their belief that humans can be teleported.
    And more than 75% haven’t seen Star Trek.

    3. Nearly 50% of adults wrongly believe that memory-erasing technology exists.
    I forgot about that one.

    4. More than 40% of people incorrectly believe that hover boards exist.
    Ya, well, hover boards are just smaller versions of hover craft. And the Brits invented them.

    5. Nearly one fifth (18%) of adults have the incorrect view that they can see gravity.
    What? 82% of Brits can’t see gravity? So if an apple falls and no one sees it then gravity doesn’t exist.

  12. The Wrong Guy says:

    #12: You really have a one track mind. Is there any subject you can’t use to attack Obama no matter how utterly unrelated? Dislike of his policies aside, one has to wonder if the Secret Service is aware of your single minded fixation on the President.

  13. M0les says:

    Of course time-travel exists! Yesterday I was in yesterday, today I am in today and tomorrow, I suspect I will be in tomorrow. We all travel forwards in time “all the time”.

    BTW, all the gravity-wave detection experiments I’ve known of are effectively trying to “see” gravity (i.e. interference of split laser beams due to spatial distortion). I don’t personally believe this can work, but I’m not a physicist.

  14. So what says:

    Given the answers posted in the article I would like to see the actual questions. It would appear from the way the results were posited the questions were skewed to obtain specific results.

  15. So what says:

    Lets bring the stupidity even closer to home.

    How many believe alfie is an ass?

    How many believe alfie’s grasp of reality is at best tenuous?

    Do you believe that someday alfie’s remains will be found in a sealed home being devoured by two hundred cats?

    Those who have been subjected to alfie’s posts agree with all of the above, and are planning a party when number three occurs.

  16. Greg Allen says:

    I’ve known a lot of Brits and in their unguarded moments, they tell me that Americans are fat and stupid.

    We have at least one thing in common with the Brits!

  17. Greg Allen says:

    >> Uncle Dave
    >> It would be interesting to see how many of these people are religious, too.

    Cheap shot.

    Besides, it’s well-known that the British are not very religious.

    Perhaps that’s why they are so stupid? (just kidding)

  18. So what says:

    Not really its that your ramblings reminded me of an article on an eccentric cat lady I read recently.

  19. So what says:

    Well aflie your obviously not number one since god has a plan for you, you have no need to make things happen because its all gods plan. Your not number two as your blind to even the most obvious aspects of reality. I will happily admit to number three. I really do wonder what happened to you, were you molested by a black man? A democrat? or just dropped on your head by your parents for fun?

  20. Wrigsted, the Dane says:

    It just show that it ain’t fair to ask women about science

  21. So what says:

    Hey alf I will catch your profound response tomorrow time for me to get some sleep. Big plans tomorrow have to go pick on a church over some environmental problems involving asbestos removal. Those pesky environmental laws even apply to houses of the non existent.

  22. Animby - just phoning it in says:

    Michio Kaku believes time travel is possible, too. Not practical, perhaps…

    Wanna know what made me shiver in this article? The term “…actually possible.”

  23. What? says:

    I agree that we have just the same issues.

    People in the US believe the earth is 6000 years old, and other nonsense.

    Lewis Black – The Old Testament http://youtube.com/watch?v=LGrlWOhtj3g&feature=youtube_gdata_player

  24. KD Martin says:

    Time travel in one direction is possible and violates nothing in General Relativity. You just need to travel very close to the speed of light to age much more slowly than those you leave behind on Earth. Time travel to the past, as far as General Relativity is concerned, remains impossible.

  25. Sea Lawyer says:

    #32, KD Martin, things are only impossible if you assume our understanding of physics remains constant. We don’t know what we don’t know.

  26. deowll says:

    Not sure even a scientifically educated person would answer this the way you want.

    Sense nobody knows what a light saber is one is left with hard questions about is this possible and the last I heard they weren’t sure.

    Electronic teleportation has been done on I think either an atom or electron or some such so is it possible?

    I hate to say this but memory erasing tech does exist. Ours isn’t up to men in black standards but they can knock out selected memories by getting you to think about them then doing something the exact nature of which I didn’t bother to remember. They were using it to cure people of phobias caused by traumatic experiences. You forgot the experience and the phobia faded. A blow to the head can sometimes cause you to forget the last ~15 minutes: short term memory.

    The myth busters made a small hover craft steered by leaning in the direction you wished to go. You had something else in mind?

    You may not be able to _see_ gravity but you can see/feel the effects of gravity. In some respects this may be distinction without a lot of meaning to most people.

  27. Fluffy Rabbit says:

    3. Nearly 50% of adults wrongly believe that memory-erasing technology exists.

    Memory erasing technology is commonplace and has been for centuries. It is called “alcohol”.

  28. Mr, Ed - the Original (with comma) says:

    From the land of crop circles.

    Sorry, Curry.

  29. Benjamin says:

    “Everything that can be invented has been invented.” -Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, U.S. patent office, 1899 (attributed)

    Now that was a stupid statement. By calling people who think time-travel, teleportion, or memory-erasing technology is possible stupid, you are basically making the same errors as Charles H Duell.

    People also said that inventing the light bulb, breaking the sound barrier, creating nuclear fission, landing a man on the moon and even powered flight were impossible. They were wrong.

    Technology evolves with time and then we get pretty amazing thinks that before seemed impossible. I don’t rule anything out as impossible. Unlikely, but not impossible.

    This is a stupid survey.

  30. Benjamin says:

    “Are these people religious?”

    Maybe. Genesis 11: 6 says “And the LORD said, ‘Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.'”


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