The idea of time travel and parallel universes may seem like science fiction, but a group of physicists will catch your attention by claiming that it is not entirely beyond the realm of reality. Could it be that what is science fiction can actually be within the scope of science fact?

However, actual time travel within the bounds of one timeline is "sidestepped" by the proof of the existence of parallel universes. If it were possible to traverse these boundaries between universes, one would travel in a separate and distinct timeline from where the traveler actually started from.

Since 1949 when it was given credibility by logician Kurt Godel, many scientists argue upon time travel for the simple reason that it undermines the principles of cause and effect in creating time paradoxes. If a time traveler goes back in time in the same timeline and kills his progenitors, would that in effect void his/her existence from the future?

The proof of the existence of parallel universes can do away with these paradoxes as offered by David Deutsch of Oxford University. He states that time travel shifts between different branches of reality. His claim is based on the so-called "many-worlds" formulation in quantum theory.

Yet again, though it does not expressly denote the possibility of time travel, it does, however, strengthen that the theory of parallel universes sidestepping actual time travel. If that same time traveler above traverses a parallel universe in a timeline that is considered the past from his time of origin and kills, his progenitor in that parallel timeline, then, his doppelganger in that universe's timeline ceases to exist, not him.

In a much recent report, a group of researchers claims that there are multiple timelines that are playing out right now in parallel universes. The said claim according to the physicists believes parallel universes can affect one another by interaction, according to Express. They claim that by this interaction universe, it would be possible for "time travelers" to visit Earth. There lies the confusion, if indeed these travelers traverse from their universe to ours, then they are moving from their timeline to another in a separate universe having its own timeline.

This perspective of time travel came at an auspicious time after mental time travel pioneer Professor Michael Corballis of the University of Auckland received the Rutherford medal for excellence in science, social science, and technology, Radio New Zealand reported.