Can the laws of physics be changed to inhibit chemistry but permit technology?

Some more-than-usually clever boffins have knocked up a system that allows them to form portals into a region where the laws of physics are rather...different.

An object that is fired through one portal - that is, with no physical connection back to the origin point - will emerge from the other with its speed unchanged and vector shifted to align with the exit portal's alignment - no matter what that alignment is. From the outside, this appears to have instantaneously - indeed, faster-than-light. But experiments to demonstrate its safety show something...odd.

Biological specimens travel through the portal almost entirely unchanged. Bacterial cultures don't grow, animals don't age, plants don't photosynthesize. They bear every sign of having passed immediately from one point to the next. The only difference is that they appear to emerge colder than when they entered.

Radioactive isotopes, on the other hand, appear to decay at an accelerated rate. When examined, they have decayed twice as much as they should have if they had simply made the same journey through normal space.

Technological recorders are a mixed bag. Some technology works, some does not.

After extensive study, the conclusion is this:

Chemical reactions don't happen in the Pathway.

A vessel sent through the pathway continues to move through time and space, but it's moving through the time of the Pathway universe, not our universe - hence the apparently instantaneous transit. But during this time, all chemical reactions simply...stop. Complex molecules remain in the state they were when they entered the portal. Heat radiates away as normal with no biological processes to generate it. As soon as the vessel leaves the Pathway, chemistry starts up again exactly where it left off.

So, after all that backstory, here's my question:

What changes to the laws of physics could produce this effect? And what kind of technology would be able to operate in such a region?

posted about 8 years ago

Werrf‭

26 reputation 11 2 3 0