An Iranian press outlet pulled a story about a “time machine” after it was received with mockery after spreading online.
Wired reported on Thursday that a Fars News Agency story promoting Ali Razeghi’s alleged invention — a device that could supposedly use readings taken from finger impressions to predict the next five to eight years of a person’s life — got on multiple news sites’ radar after being picked up by the British newspaper The Daily Telegraph.
Razeghi’s discovery also allegedly veered from modern pop culture’s visions of a time machine, like the DeLorean from Back To The Future or Doctor Who‘s TARDIS (aka the blue box pictured above).
“My invention easily fits into the size of a personal computer case,” he told Fars, adding, “It will not take you into the future, it will bring the future to you.”
The boast was quickly heckled by tech sites like Gizmodo, which snarked, “That sounds a lot like fortune telling, tarot card reading and staring into a crystal ball inside a laptop bag to me,” before Fars deleted the story from its website.
But according to The Atlantic, Razeghi is actually be more of a “serial inventor” than a scientist. He has reportedly developed more than over 180 patents in 10 years, and his organization, the “Center for Strategic Inventions,” does not appear to be a state agency.
Watch Newsy Science’s recap of Razeghi’s story, posted online on Thursday, below.
[Image: Matt Smith and Karen Gillan from "Doctor Who" via Wikipedia Commons]
