Laboratory Universe in Miniature Said to Show Time Arising Without a Clock

BIRMINGHAM, ENGLAND — A question of some antiquity, whether time is a basic ingredient of the universe or merely a by-product of things changing, has found its way onto the r/HighStrangeness forum, where a Reddit user posted an item on the subject this week.

According to the post, a physicist at the University of Birmingham has created a miniature universe in the laboratory. The post says the apparatus offers a surprising new way to investigate the possibility that time is not fundamental, but emerges from the changes taking place inside a system.

The post's title goes further, stating that the physicists watched time emerge without a clock. The brief text supplied with it does not explain how the miniature universe was built, what it is made of, or how the emergence of time was observed. Nor does it name the physicist involved.

Readers wishing to judge the matter for themselves will find that the post offers no figures, no description of method, and no word from independent researchers. Whether the experiment settles anything, or merely sharpens an old puzzle, is left for the full report and for the physics community to determine.

For the present, the clock on the laboratory wall, if there is one, continues to keep its own counsel.