Amazement As Speed Of Light 'Is Broken'

[tartist]

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Scientists at the world's largest physics lab think they may have proved Albert Einstein's theory of relativity wrong - by breaking the speed of light.

Experts at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Switzerland believe they have clocked neutrinos travelling fast enough to shatter the central pillar of physics.

But they cannot quite believe it themselves, they say, because according to Einstein's famous 1905 equation, E=mc2, it is simply impossible.

"The feeling that most people have is this can't be right, this can't be real," said James Gillies, a spokesman for CERN.

Whole story here: Source: Sky News

So put on your thinking caps, engage your imaginations and think what could this open the door to?

[TVC_Colwal]

Whole story here: Source: Sky News

So put on your thinking caps, engage your imaginations and think what could this open the door to?

Stupid scientists, what will they come up with next - that the world is round and not flat and the earth revolves around the Sun.... What do they know!

[tacoben]

Surely this is just another example of premature ejaculation on behalf of the media. Plus it really makes very little difference to my life if the theory is disproved. I can not imagine that suddenly trains will start running on time or we will never have to pay the electric bill again.

[Jonathan]

If neutrinos can faster than speed of light it opens up the possibility for other things to go faster than light, up till now it always no things can't go FTL so no one really asked or payed much serious attention to it.

If it is discovered that is true (the media says scientists at CERN have announced they've got particles FTL, but in reality the scientists have published papers and asked other scientists to help make sense of it and find errors), it leads to the ability to think about FTL travel, so that we can get to the neighbouring stars without going though at least generation of people. Complete speculation, but it could completely change what we think our future will be. Although it will no doubt turn out to be a systematic error and a complete non-discovery.

My physics teacher (she specialises in particle physics) seemed quite enthusiastic about the news (not that it will turn out to be true necessarily, but that its even got to the stage where a paper has been published) which she's never been before about these "groundbreaking" discoveries apparently.

[breadfan]

Nothing can travel faster than light

The neutrinos just took a 'shortcut' through another dimension...

[Belladonic]

If you manage to prove that you can travel faster than light, then time travel genuinely becomes possible.

Regarding the LHC, you can play your part in deciphering results for the 'god like plasma' by joining up here: CLICKY

[Jonathan]

The neutrinos just took a 'shortcut' through another dimension...

Nevertheless, that still makes problems as the cause and effect are out of order. And it means information can be transmitted faster than light. Eg send the number 5, (101 in binary) and you either send a neutrino every second or nothing, you could send one neutrino, wait a second, send another, and the receiver would (as I understand it) receive the number before it was sent.

[tartist]

Does it mean that I can honestly tell Mrs Hitler that I was with Miss X when I was really with Miss Y? This is a Good Thing I hope.

[TVC_H4U]

I did not see this coming - (lol).

Fibre Optics watch out, internet can be faster than light now... Thats the most exciting thing.

[tacoben]

Surely most of the mainstream theories on time travel rely heavily on the equation being accurate. So this would prove time travel as we perceive it to be impossible.

However physics is one of the only sciences where theories remain theories and I am sure for the last 100 years there have been many people disregarding E=mc2 as a fundamental building block. Personally I think time is a human constraint we have imposed on ourselves to make sense of the universe around us and therefore time does not actually exist. Plus if I want to travel back in time I just visit my wife's parents house.