Undergraduate challenges all modern science
Christopher Jennings, a first year undergraduate in Physics and Media at the University of Hull, has written a three thousand word essay that promises to turn all the precepts of modern science on their heads.
The astonishing work, which claims that intergalactic travel at faster than light velocities is not only possible but less than five years away from reality, has sent shock waves through the academic community. His parents Don and Iris Jennings have long suspected that their son was a prodigy in the making, but are now convinced that he is about to re-write the rule book on super science following years of deep thought and research in his bedroom at their house in Corby, West Midlands.
“We always thought he was just wasting his time watching Star Trek, Babylon 5 and X-Files for hours and even days on end, but it turns out he was formulating the ideas that have now led to this amazing mini-dissertation,” said proud father Don last night.
In the essay, Christopher makes the bold assertion that the ability to transport objects or even humans over great distances instantaneously is within our grasp, and that huge rotating space-stations will allow humans to live off-world and establish outposts in space. The paper also covers the developing science of genetics and claims that we may all be descendents of extra-terrestrials and part of an ongoing American government experiment that has been running in partnership with aliens since the 1950’s.
His mother, who describes Chris as a quiet lad, admitted that some of her son’s theories are way beyond her intellectual ability to understand and that she simply has to trust that he knows what he is talking about. “Last time he was home for the holidays he sat staring out the window for a few minutes over breakfast. I asked him if something was the matter, and I’ll never forget what happened next. He turned and looked me straight in the eye and said “Mum, the truth is out there.” I remember a shiver running up my spine as I considered the implication of what he was saying.”
However, lecturers on Chris’s course at university have sounded a note of caution, “He is mainly a C/D grade student, and he does watch an awful lot of science fiction,” said his personal tutor Ann MacDonald. “And some of his fellow undergraduates have suggested that Chris should get himself down the SU bar a bit more often and spend less time practising Klingon.” One female student, who refused to be named, said the now famous student who lived across the corridor in her hall of residence was ‘weird and a bit spooky, and not in a cute way either.’