It looks like we may have to rip up all the science books if the results of an experiment undertaken at CERN are correct . Since Einstein’s day, the world has been confidently told by the scientists that nothing could go faster than the speed of light .
An experiment which involved sending Neutrinos from one position to another showed the Neutrino turning up quicker than light would have . In effect, they travelled faster than the speed of light . The scientists involved in the experiment have desisted from saying that it is a formal discovery as the implications for physics are so enormous .
Readers of this blog will probably be interested to know that according to the Special Theory of Relativity, anything which could move faster than the speed of light would move back in Time and it could be Dr Who will have to be reclassified as documentary rather than science fiction .
It would also have implications for Space Travel as we always believed speed was finite and if we were able to fully understand the processes involved, we may be able to visit other galaxies in a reasonable period of time . One of the arguments against extra-terrestrial UFOs visiting Earth has always been that ET would be hampered by the speed of light limit, which would make the length of the journey prohibitive . If this experiment is true, then that argument goes out the window .
The main scientist Antonio Ereditato is being cautious as previous experiments appeared to prove Einstein’s theory that nothing could travel faster than the speed of light but have repeated the experiment 15000 times and got the same result .
Sir Arthur Eddington was quoted as saying, in reference to Quantum Physics, “Not only is the universe stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we can imagine.” He knew what he was talking about .
Source : BBC News
I have long been of the view that Light cannot possibly be the fastest thing in the universe. We now laugh at people from the past who believed the world was flat…. our understanding of things hasn’t really changed since then, and in the future, people will surely laugh at us for our ‘nothing is faster than light’ science.
Hi – Science should always be open to question . One day we find 2+2 doesn’t equal 4 .
Maybe the surrealists where the only ones who had it right.