Albert Einstein is known throughout the world as one of the greatest scientific minds to ever walk the earth. His work has changed the way people view the world, the universe and humanity. Could Einstein’s best known equation E=mc^2 be wrong? And if so what does this mean for the science and what we think we know about the universe?
Scientist’s believe that they now can break the speed of light; some say they have already done so. This revelation has scientists across the globe working out ways to verify the claims some have made stating that they have in fact broken the speed of light which according to Einstein is a barrier that is impossible to breach. If the results of these studies are conclusive enough to prove that science has in fact reached a point where they can accelerate particles beyond the speed of light (299,792,458 meters per second), the scientific world will surely be rocked.
The speed of light is estimated at 299,792,458 meters per second which equals a speed of approximately 186,282 miles (299,792 Kilometers) per second. Yes indeed, the speed of light surely is fast; up until very recently the speed of light was regarded as the absolute maximum speed that energy, matter, and information could travel.
I remember once upon a time it was a common “fact” that the Earth was flat; most people accepted this “fact” as the truth and very few actually challenged the idea. Then again, the world has changed significantly since then and people are now pretty much able to think and openly discuss their beliefs without the fear of retaliation from the state or the church. Could it be however that the great Albert Einstein might have gotten it wrong?
According to Einstein’s special theory of relativity, it is impossible for anything to go faster than the speed of light. Einstein’s 1905 theory states that the speed of light is the same for all inertial observers regardless of the state of motion of the source and nothing can attain speeds higher than light. If science is right in proving Einstein’s theory inaccurate, the results would upset one of the very basic fundamentals in the physics world today.
Hundreds of scientists and reporters were on hand Friday to hear how neutrinos have seemingly been able to achieve a speed greater than the speed of light. During the presentation, an International team of scientists successfully managed to accelerate the sub-atomic neutrino particle to a speed greater than the speed of light. The team members involved are members of Frances Institute for Nuclear and Particle Physics Research and Italy’s Gran Sasso National Laboratory. The team said that they successfully fired a beam of neutrinos 454 miles from Geneva to Gran Sasso in Italy.
The word neutrino means “small neutral one” and rightfully so; neutrinos are subatomic particles that are electrically neutral and only weakly interactive. This sub-atomic particle is the first known substance thought to have traveled faster than the speed of light; something that Einstein’s theory said would take an infinite amount of energy to achieve.
So how much faster than light did science track the neutrinos speed at? How does 60 nanoseconds sound? In case you are wondering, 60 nanoseconds is just 60 billionths of a second which is simply too short a time for the human mind to wrap around. It is estimated that one nanosecond is to one second as one second is to 31.7 years.
If the findings are true and science really has found a way to break through the limits set forth in Einstein’s special theory of relativity than what does that mean for humanity? Well, I think the best answer to this question is nothing, at least not right now anyway. Perhaps someday all of the cool things we see on our favorite sci-fi shows will come true. Innovations like the warp drive from the show Star-Trek might be a reality as we march into the future.