According to conventional scientific wisdom, nothing can travel faster than the speed of light. But recent information stemming from Grimble Farm in the heart of Devon has cast serious doubt on this hallowed Einsteinian tenet of science... I am Joe Chip at Prescience and I can here reveal that last April, Harold Rubicon, an independent scientist working in a secluded laboratory at Grimble Farm in the heart of Devon, succeeded in setting up an experiment in which a high-intensity laser beam was made to rotate faster than the speed of light. However, after the experiment succeeded, the resulting rupture in the space-time continuum caused the complete obliteration of Harold Rubicon as well as Grimble Farm and a good few acres of countryside. Only Rubicon's indestructible blackbox dictation machine remains to testify to those strange events. It is on the basis of the information recorded on this blackbox and made available to me, that I bring readers of Prescience this most astonishing story. I first heard of Rubicon's experiment through a friend of an enemy of a friend. It transpired that an imperishable NASA blackbox dictation machine (originally designed to withstand entry into a blackhole) was on the market. And according to the informational recording held within this device, the aforementioned Harold Rubicon had indeed successfully carried out a faster-than-light experiment. Rubicon's recording allegedly detailed the whole experiment up until the rupture in the space-time continuum occurred. When I first heard about this whole affair I was, of course, decidedly dubious. In fact, I had a hearty chortle and smiled knowingly to myself. But I was also curious enough to actually purchase the blackbox recorder and establish for myself whether the whole thing was a fake or for real. In shady and quite scary circumstances, a large sum of money and bonds changed hands and I found myself with the blackbox recorder. I set about connecting it up to my computer and then to a sound module. What follows is a verbatim transcription of the recording made by Rubicon. It began like this: "Saturday 2nd of April. I, Harold Rubicon of Grimble Farm, being of sound mind, do hereby leave all my worldly wealth to The Heisenberg Foundation should the experiment I am about to commence go horribly wrong and kill me. I am about to attempt the impossible. I stand in my wheat field. It is night. Before me is a special apparatus which I have constructed according to my own secret design. It is a kind of rotating machine fuelled by cold fusion. Attached to it is a high-velocity laser which I obtained from military sources. The laser mechanism is set to rotate at close to one sixth of the speed of light. Therefore, the end of the laser beam, once it is switched on and once it's base is rotating at such a speed - which, I should add, is a lawful speed and which lies within the accepted limits of Einstein's theory of Relativity - will nonetheless itself be rotating faster than the speed of light. A little reflection reveals that this must be so. For example, consider a rotating wheel. Let us say that...." noise of dog barking, muffles as Rubicon puts down his microphone...then: "...Down boy! Go inside Heisenberg! Inside!......" Rubicon clears his throat and continues: "Now, where was I? Ah yes. A rotating wheel. Well, it is clear that if the outside of the wheel rotates at, say, one metre per second, then if one attaches a long stick to the centre of the wheel so that it extends out well beyond the wheel's rim, then the end of the stick will be travelling faster than the centre part. This is because the outer end of the stick has further to travel than the inside end, but in the same amount of time. And the longer the stick, the faster must the end whisk around. Indeed, all this depends upon elementary mathematics. "It can be calculated, for instance, that the outer tip of a stick or rod one mile long that is attached to a wheel rotating at 1 metre per second will itself be travelling in excess of 5 miles per second. Therefore, given that my rotating machine can rotate a laser close to one quarter the speed of light, then the laser beam emanated by the laser will break the speed of light in its rotation at roughly one mile's distance from its source. "This then, is the gist of the experiment. As far as I can tell, at one mile's distance, the laser beam will have no choice but to break the light barrier in terms of its rotational speed. All is set. I have already established that my rotating machine can rotate at one quarter the speed of light. I have today connected up to it the laser recently obtained by me. It only remains for me to turn on the rotator. Then to initiate power to the laser. And then to observe the fate of the actual laser beam. I must confess that I fear for what might transpire. This is why I now record my experiment on a special NASA blackbox recording device. This device can withstand any event, even an event in which the space-time continuum in its vicinity is upset in some way. Thus, should I and my immediate surroundings succumb to a timeslip of some strange kind, the recording device will be unaffected, being built as it is from Delta-Bucky-Carbon 009. Anyhow, I begin the experiment now...." noise of microphone being put down.....clicks and the sound of machinery humming.... "The first part of the experiment is underway. I must now wait for the speed of rotation to build up to its maximum level. In the intervening period I can just say that when I wrote to Nature, that most esteemed of all scientific journals, they laughed at my proposed experiment. Those buffoons know nothing! The editor mocked me. Well, we shall see. They will not be so full of smirks when I accept a Nobel Prize for science. Ah, but I see now that my rotation machine has reached its full speed. Now I must turn on the laser and activate its beam. This is the moment of truth. I merely have to press this button.... One small button-press for a man, one giant leap for mankind. Almost there, almost there..." sound of button clicking....strange humming noise and static interference...then: "My God! Its full of stars! Why, the end of the laser beam, etched as it is in ruby red against the night sky, has begun to form a swirling web pattern...." Here the recording comes to an abrupt end. I immediately set off to Grimble Farm to learn more. However, in Devon, I could find no farm, village or town called Grimble. I had almost come to the conclusion that the whole thing was an elaborate hoax, when I found out, through an old farmer, that a farm called Grimble existed up until the mid-17th century. I checked this on some old maps and found that this was indeed the case. Whatsmore, a little historical detective work revealed that one Harold Rubicon once lived in the farm and made quite a name for himself in the vicinity as an accomplished inventor. A 17th century legend even had it that he was an alchemist or magician of some kind and that he possessed a number of 'infernal machines' of some 'devilish manner'. And apparently he and his farm appeared quite suddenly, as if out of nowhere, which served to fuel the rumours of heresy which surrounded him. And he had a dog. Well, my curiosity aroused, I next determined to locate the area where Grimble Farm had been situated. I trekked long and hard through fields and forests and at the alleged spot of Grimble farm I found the faint vestiges of a kind of massive once-burnt area of vegetation, as though a large fire had once raged there. Further enquiries from the nearest local farmers revealed that there had been some old reclusive inventor living out there in an old dilapidated farm. And that red lights had been seen in the sky the previous April. All of these subsequent facts leads me to a single profound conclusion. That Rubicon succeeded in making his laser beam rotate faster than the speed of light and that this caused him and his farm to be transported back in time to the 17th century. It could happen. It only remains for me to try and repeat Rubicon's experiment. This will naturally take some time since I have no military laser nor do I have a cold-fusion rotating machine. But should I one day disappear, then please do look in the history books for the name of Joe Chip, for perhaps I too can move into the past and thence become, like Rubicon, an anachronistic magician of some kind. Then again, having already checked many history books, I can find no mention of any alchemist or wizard by the name of Joe Chip. Hence I may change my name... But until then, this is Joe Chip signing off.