If only Albert knew
September 22, 2011 4 Comments
What is one to make of the news that Albert Einstein may have been wrong about the theory of special relativity? Since that theory was developed over a hundred years ago and has been put to the test constantly since, it has become so ingrained in our subconscious that to consider it may be wrong is, well,… wrong.
Researchers at the CERN (you know, that massive underground particle accelerator in the Swiss Alps some people felt would turn the Earth into a black hole) have recorded some sub-atomic particles traveling faster than the speed of light. What? Think of the excitement for the big brains at NASA, MIT, and Fedex. Lots of possibilities.
Actually, I’m relieved for CERN that they may be on to something big. So much money poured into that venture from so many nations on such great promise and so little evidence. For those of us who have been waiting for decades to see some major shift in the universe, this is a red letter day. Too bad it was announced on the same day Facebook announced its new features, including timeline.
About Peter Armaly
Many like myself that ponder such questions:
Why does light move at just 186,000 miles per second?
Why no slower? No faster? Does it change at 186?
If I was driving at the speed of light and turned on my headlights.
Where would they go?
Can rest easier knowing that someday we’ll be able to get things done FTL and blindly move through our lives even faster then we already try to do.
and die before we’re born
It took 200 years for this same guy to propose an alternative to Newton’s theory. Now another 100 years and billions to discover he might be wrong.
I might be missing something but I still feel there is a huge gap between this last discovery and our life on earth. Being passionate about science, I’d like to be thrilled but I can’t find how.
Thanks for the comment, Frederick. I think we’re going to have to wait a long time to learn of anything conclusive that comes from this. And rightly so. After all, the foundations of physics should not be shaken and stirred just for our entertainment. As an aside, I follow the tweets of one of the English world’s best authors, Salman Rushdie. Today he is indignantly tweeting directly at what he calls “that lying neutrino”. He doesn’t believe this latest discovery actually happened.