Every year I visit Las Vegas and every year I find the same old thing. No one is willing to take a bet on who is right: Albert Einstein or Gene Roddenberry.

You’re probably thinking, “I hope Columbia University demands your diploma back. Betting against Einstein is like hitting on 20 when the dealer’s up card is a king. That guy was one scary dude.”

Well, belly up to the bar and bring your bankroll with you. It might be time to bet against the house.

For years, scientists have pooh-poohed the idea of traveling faster than the speed of light. They looked askance at Gene Roddenberry, the creator of Star Trek, every time Captain Kirk ordered Scotty to kick the Enterprise into warp drive.*

It’s too early to call Roddenberry the winner, but a fairly new, and totally strange, behavior might put a dent in Einstein’s winning streak. Scientists call it quantum entanglement, but it has a more popular name, one that Roddenberry would have relished.

Spooky action at a distance. (Yes, spooky is part of the name.)

Let’s say there are a pair of identical twins, Ana and Maria. They like to dance by whirling in place, but if Ana spins clockwise Maria spins counterclockwise. And vice versa. No matter what, the two always spin in opposite directions. (Please don’t ask why. I’m an engineer, not a child psychologist.)

We take Ana and put her in the bar’s women’s room. After a thorough cleaning, we put Maria in the men’s room. The restrooms are too far apart for Ana and Maria to communicate with each other in any way. And, we tell the young ladies to begin dancing.

After a few minutes, I open the men’s room door and you the women’s at exactly the same moment.

What do we find?

Ana and Maria are spinning in opposite directions. This is true every time we perform this experiment. Every time.

How did they know which way to spin?

Whatever passed between them appears to have traveled instantaneously, that is, faster than the speed of light.

Okay, I’ve simplified things a bit, but physicists have demonstrated that quantum entanglement occurs between the tiny particles that make up atoms and parts of atoms.

If something travels between these particles, as it did between our twins, faster than the speed of light, that fact could force reconsideration of Einstein’s theory of relativity, which describes the foundation of our universe’s organization.

It would also create problems that would make even Roddenberry spin in his grave (with, perhaps, Ray Bradbury spinning in the opposite direction).

The spookiest situation? If you ordered a beer faster than the speed of light you’d get it yesterday. (“Yes, officer, I had 3 beers today. But I can’t be drunk because I drank them last night.”)

Naturally, the total destruction of cause and effect is a disappointment to scientists, whom I suspect are secretly on Roddenberry’s side but can’t talk about it because they like their diplomas.

Instead, they’ve begun a flurry of work to apply and revise current theories and explain why quantum entanglement doesn’t mean communicating at warp speed.

While they’re working on a fix, there are practical applications for quantum entanglement beyond encouraging Delta Airlines to start booking flights to Mars (most of which will still go through O’Hare Airport):

• high-speed computers. No, really high-speed computers. Think of a bullet train versus a bicycle;
• secure communication that not only can’t be cracked, it warns you if someone even tries to eavesdrop;
• improved medical imagery that can show formerly-invisible tissue features without damaging cells.

Right now, Einstein versus Roddenberry is a push, although Einstein is the sentimental favorite. But before Einstein came along, scientists were convinced Newton’s laws completely described how beach balls, planets and whirling twins moved. And even Einstein believed that theories describing the behavior of atoms and their component pieces weren’t complete.

Will we someday discover that betting on Einstein was a mistake?

If that’s what happens in 50 years, you should be getting your winnings any day now.