Researchers have created a new form of matter: time crystals. Inside them, an endless cycle of movement takes place. Has science created a perpetual motion machine?
It sounds like a fever dream: the couples spin to the beat of a waltz while the hours fly by. The dancers whirl on and on, all evening long, through the night, for days, years, centuries. They circle through space and time in the same beat, into eternity.
The scene is surreal. It not only contradicts human abilities, but also what nature is capable of. Without an external supply of energy, nothing can move forever. Or can it? In 2012, Nobel Prize winner Frank Wilczek postulated a previously unknown form of matter: time crystals. An eternal dance was supposed to take place inside them, just like that of the waltzing couples in the opening scene.