TRY as I might, I just can’t bring myself to be a believer.

I have agonised over the question for many, many hours but, faced with there being no evidence at all to prove it, I am unable to accept it. I only wish I could because then a whole new world of experiences might be opened up to me.

I find myself among 70 per cent of the population who feel the same.

But, I learned this week, that still leaves nearly a third of Britons who say they believe in the existence of time travel.

Maybe these people have been watching too many episodes of Doctor Who or Ashes to Ashes. But just think, those who have the vision could save up the money to buy their very own Tardis to park in the back garden. Then they could go through that narrow blue door any time they wanted and wait for the strident must-go music to start. What an adventure that would be, but not alas for us down-to-earth types.

That there are so many time travel believers was discovered by researchers working for Birmingham Science City partnership. I dismiss the thought that they conducted their study just in that city which might explain why so many people had the hope that they could be somewhere else in a trice.

They also found that nearly half of adults believe that memory-erasing technology such as those nifty little silver sticks used in the film Men in Black really do exist. I think they may be getting confused with alcohol.

A similar percentage of folk also think that Back To The Future-style hover boards are real. But, just like UFOs, I bet they can’t come up with a photo to prove it.

Teleportation as seen in Star Trek was a real mode of transport as far as nearly a quarter of the population was concerned. If only, it would save an awful lot of standing up in overcrowded commuter trains.

More than one in five people think that light sabres, which are wielded with such deadly force in Star Wars, really do exist. No, they are kids’ toys which need batteries to keep them going.

Oh, and one fifth of people think that they can see gravity. That must be the stuff in between all that air so visibly apparent around us.

The researchers concluded that it was “not surprising” that people sometimes got science fact and fiction confused.

Another piece of research which caught my eye this week was done to mark National Butchers Week. Confusion featured heavily in this one as well.

It found that more than two out of 10 people in the East of England thought that chicken chops were real. A similar number reckoned they could find wing of pork, lamb drumsticks and leg of liver at their butcher’s.

Some thought that tofu was meat-based while one in 20 believed that haggis, faggots, game pie and oxtail contained no meat. If they were assured that it did, I reckon these people would try to cut it with a light sabre.