Speed of light 'broken' by scientists

Borsk

Borsk

Administrator
Staff member
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15017484

It was Albert Einstein, no less, who proposed more than 100 years ago that nothing could travel faster than the speed of light.

But last night it emerged that the man who laid the foundations for the laws of nature may have been wrong.

The science world was left in shock when workers at the world’s largest physics lab announced they had recorded subatomic particles travelling faster than the speed of light

If the findings are proven to be accurate, they would overturn one of the pillars of the Standard Model of physics, which explains the way the universe and everything within it works.

Einstein’s theory of special relativity, proposed in 1905, states that nothing in the universe can travel faster than the speed of light in a vacuum. But researchers at the CERN lab near Geneva claim they have recorded neutrinos, a type of tiny particle, travelling faster than the barrier of 186,282 miles (299,792 kilometers) per second.

The results have so astounded researchers that American and Japanese scientists have been asked to verify the results before they are confirmed as a discovery. Antonio Ereditato, spokesman for the researchers, said: “We have high confidence in our results. We have checked and rechecked for anything that could have distorted our measurements but we found nothing.”

Scientists agree if the results are confirmed, that it would force a fundamental rethink of the laws of physics. John Ellis, a theoretical physicist, said Einstein’s theory underlies “pretty much everything in modern physics”.
Click to expand...

mmmm....wormholes
 
Buzz Bumble

Buzz Bumble

Furry Ewok
Yep, that story is all over the place. The fools on last night's TV news here in New Zealand said something about time travel now being possible. Typical sensationalistic, lazy (and often dangerous) reporting - scientists have made a tiny sub-atomic particle supposedly go faster than light, and already reporters are on about time travel. :rolleyes:
 
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