I recently read an article in the May 18, 2006 issue of Nature called the “Top Five in Physics” it outlined what the hottest areas of physics research are, based on a ranking algorithm developed by a German physicist.

Before I got my undergraduate in Computer Science, I was a Physics major for one semester. I was quickly disappointed to learn that Physics != Star Trek. I was hoping to work on warp drive technology, but was stuck calculating the friction of balls rolling down ramps. After such an obvious let down, I switched to computer science.

I do however still have quite a bit of interest in physics, however when I see these “Hot” research areas, (carbon nanotubes, nano wires, quantum dots, fullerenes, and giant magnetoresistance) I must admit I still feel a pang of disappointment. Here is what I wish the top 5 research areas in physics were:

1. Warp Drive - I guess one could argue we are moving in the right direction with things like the X Prize Foundation However I have yet to see any entrants that used anything other than conventional propulsion
2. Sliding Technology - When I was a kid I really wanted one of those gizmos from Sliders
3. Phasers - Once we start traveling with warp drive and sliding technology, we would of course need some type of defensive weapons…
4. Light Sabers - See above.
5. Time Travel

I remember when I was in high school, I was watching one of the “Back To the Future” movies on TV. During one of the commercial breaks, the 11 o’clock news anchorwoman came on and said something to the effect of “Think time travel is just fiction? We’ll talk to one scientist who says it is closer than you think.”.

So of course I had to stay up and watch.Well they (”they” being whoever arranges the order of news stories), cleverly put the time travel story at the end of the newscast so I had to watch an entire hour before the segment ran.

The “Closer than you think” time travel news breakthrough consisted of a retired mathematician scribling a couple of equations on some paper, muttering something about the equations and then saying, “So you see, it is possible…”. The shot then cut back to the anchorwoman who said something clever, and then ended the show. Sigh.