Popular Mechanics: “In a surprising new paper, scientists say they’ve nailed down a physical model for a warp drive, which flies in the face of what we’ve long thought about the crazy concept of warp speed travel: that it requires exotic, negative forces. The colloquial term ‘warp drive’ comes from science fiction, most famously Star Trek. The faster-​than-light warp drive of the Federation works by colliding matter and antimatter and converting the explosive energy to propulsion. Star Trek suggests that this extraordinary power alone pushes the ship at faster-than-light speeds.”

“In the report, the APL team unveils the world’s first model for a physical warp drive – one that doesn’t require negative energy. The study is understandably pretty thick, but here’s the gist of the model: Where the existing paradigm uses negative energy – exotic matter that doesn’t exist and can’t be generated within our current understanding of the universe – this new concept uses floating bubbles of spacetime rather than floating ships in spacetime. The physical model uses almost none of the negative energy and capitalizes on the idea that spacetime bubbles can behave almost however they like. And, the APL scientists say, this isn’t even the only other way warp speed could work. Making a model that’s at least physically comprehensible is a big step.”

“The concept in this paper is still in the ‘far future’ zone of possibility, made of ideas that scientists still don’t know how to construct in any sense. ‘While the mass requirements needed for such modifications are still enormous at present,’ the APL scientists write, ‘our work suggests a method of constructing such objects based on fully understood laws of physics.’ But while a physical drive may not be a reality today, tomorrow, or even a century from now – let’s hope it’s not that long – with this exciting new model, warp speed travel is now a lot more likely in a much shorter timespan than we previously thought.”