Superluminal
Writers of science fiction have always been intrigued by breaking the one well known rule of physics — you simply cannot go faster than the speed of light. CERN has been able to move particles up to 99.99% the speed of light, but they can't break the barrier, which seems to be written into the underlying fabric of our universe.
Wikipedia informs me that particles can't move faster than the speed of light simply because the energy required to do so is infinite. But one German theoretical physicist had an idea so crazy it just might work.
It doesn't work
Sorry, but the current scientific consensus is that the speed of light cannot be surpassed. Although there might be particles that move at superluminal speeds, to accelerate a particle to c is...currently impossible. Who knows what may come up, though?
Heim's theory
There are a couple different justifications for how it might be possible to break the barrier set by Einstein's theory of relativity, but Burkhard Heim came up with my favorite.
His idea was that the entire universe is made up of ten dimensional geometric patterns, and that not only matter, but forces as well, were based on these patterns. Using this universal geometry as a foundation, he aimed to come up with a theory of everything, and in doing so, proved artificial gravity and superluminal travel.
How exactly? Easy as pie: use magnets to push particles into another dimension. Specifically, a higher-dimensional hyperspace where everything is...smaller. So small, in fact, that you can fly your spaceship across the Milky Way in about an hour. Easy as pie.
Um...what?
So I may have exaggerated a little, but Heim theory really does support some of the craziest ideas in physics, even if it doesn't require the existence of a few more fundamental particles.
AND, I don't think it can be entirely concluded that Heim was a total crackpot. He did some awesome guessing, using his sci-fi model of the universe to predict the masses of subatomic particles, and he got pretty close.
Scary close.
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