Think your cute little Minecraft schematics are the bomb? Well, a group of international researchers sees your quaint, little 3D masterpiece and raises you the blueprint for a 4D space-time crystal. Building on an idea floated earlier this year by theoretical physics guru and Nobel Laureate Frank Wilczek of MIT, a team led by UC Berkeley researcher Tongcang Li has created a schematic for a crystal with a fourth dimension -- movement in time. The resulting space-time crystal is being described as something akin to an infinitely running clock that does not require any additional energy once it starts going. The researchers also claim that the crystal can be built in just a few years -- provided that the necessary funding is available to the team that decides to take on the project, of course. Unfortunately, the crystal is still a long way from the Mr. Fusion-powered, time-traveling DeLorean that we truly desire. In the meantime, brainy types can feel free to click on the source link for more nuggets of wisdom about the research.

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Researchers create space-time crystal schematic, still won't undo those ill-advised high school photos originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 10 Jul 2012 05:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.