In a blow to budding time travellers, scientists may have uncovered proof to dash their hopes forever. A team working at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology claim to have proved that a single photon cannot travel faster than light and does in fact conform to Einstein’s theory that nothing can travel faster than light. If this is the case, then it would potentially rule out time travel as a holiday option.

Professor Shengwang Du, who is the lead researcher on the project, and his team measured the speed of a single photon. In doing so they essentially showed that an effect cannot proceed its cause. There had been debate amongst physicists regarding the velocity of single photons and the potential that one may have been able to travel faster than the speed of light.