A warp drive has long been the dream of science fiction – a way to bend space and time to travel faster than light. But a new lab experiment claims it might have taken the first real-world step toward that dream in a laboratory, using a humble spark...
In a new study, researchers describe a bold experiment with a surprisingly simple setup. With the flicker of a high-voltage spark, scientists say they may have achieved what they’ve dubbed experimental spacetime distortion – a tabletop scale twist in the fabric of reality. The idea: generate a brief but intense burst of plasma and use a precision laser interferometer to measure whether space itself shifted, even slightly, in response.
According to the data, something did move.
“Spacetime is the union of space and time – they’re not separate things,” explains theoretical physicist Ben Allanach. “Gravity bends it. Even the Sun warps spacetime enough to change how light moves and how fast time flows.”
In extreme cases, that warping creates gravitational waves, ripples in spacetime that stretch and compress the universe as they travel. These were first detected in 2015 by LIGO – the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory – which uses kilometre-long tunnels and ultra-sensitive lasers to detect waves from colossal cosmic events like black hole collisions.
This new experiment, however, attempts something far more modest but potentially revolutionary: producing and detecting a gravitational effect in a laboratory using sparks, not stars.
In the setup, sparks are generated across a small air gap at extremely high voltages, creating bursts of energy-dense plasma. At the same time, a tabletop interferometer – essentially a device that splits and recombines laser beams – tracks any changes in the light’s path. If spacetime bends, even slightly, the interference fringes (the laser patterns) should shift.
The researchers claim that’s exactly what they observed.
“They say they’ve ruled out all the usual suspects – vibrations, air currents, heat, optical effects,” says Allanach. “But I’m sceptical. There just isn’t enough energy in a spark to create the kind of spacetime distortion that would normally be detectable.”
Indeed, gravitational waves from black holes carry mind-boggling amounts of energy – something a short spark cannot rival. “Back-of-the-envelope calculations show it’s many orders of magnitude too small,” Allanach adds.
Still, the experiment has value. If nothing else, it pushes the limits of what tabletop physics might explore. And if the results are confirmed, it could suggest new ways of interacting with gravity on small scales.
The researchers speculate about future applications – from space propulsion that reshapes spacetime instead of burning fuel, to stabilising fusion reactions, or even altering chemical reaction rates for industrial uses or medical uses (imagine slowing time for healing or preserving organs). “They suggest things like changing how fast reactions happen,” Allanach says. “That could be game-changing if the effect turns out to be real.”
For now, the findings sit in scientific limbo: intriguing, but unverified. The results will need to be repeated and confirmed independently by other labs. But if they hold up, this experiment could mark the beginning of a new field – one where gravitational forces are no longer just something we observe but something we engineer.
