Speed of light may have changed recently

New Scientist ^ | 6/30/04 | Eugenie Samuel Reich

[perfect stranger]

"String theory seemed too far from experiment. He suspected that the string theorists were not trying hard enough to prove themselves wrong"
Gleick on Richard P. Feynman

[NutCrackerBoy]

The Oklo reactor started up nearly two billion years ago when groundwater filtered through crevices in the rocks and mixed with uranium ore to trigger a fission reaction that was sustained for hundreds of thousands of years. -Eugenie Samuel Reich

Hey, I didn't know there had been a natural fission reactor. What a gyp!

[Brilliant]

Now Bush is screwing up the environment and changing the speed of light!

[El Gato]

A varying speed of light contradicts Einstein's theory of relativity,

Maybe not. IIRC, Einstein just postulated that nothing can move faster than the speed of light. Actually he postulated that the speed of light is the same for all observers, regardless of their relative motion. The rest followed from that assumption.

[null and void]

4004 BC + 2004 AD = 6008 years.

Looser!

;^)

[Doctor Stochastic]

There have been more than one. There was another in what is now called Brazil.

[Cap Huff]

Faster. I used to see just a little bit of darkness when opening the door, but now it seems to be instantly light. Someone tried telling me that the light always stays on, but I'm not that dumb.

[Ichneumon]

Ahem. Nothing existed 6000 years ago, Mr. Beelzebub.

Can "nothing" actually "exist", or does it just sort of non-exist?

[PatrickHenry]

Can "nothing" actually "exist", or does it just sort of non-exist?

Nothing definitely exists. I've got quite a bit of it in my pocket.

[Doctor Stochastic]

Can "nothing" actually "exist", or does it just sort of non-exist?

Nobody knows the answer (of course, he's the only one who would.)

[El Gato]

The important thing is that science has changed its story again, thus proving right all the people who say science is wrong.

Hardly, that is the nature of science. New observations contradict old theories and lead, eventually, to new ones. The important thing is the observations.

[mikrofon]

A fascinating experiment, but when we had to do it in Physics lab, they never labeled the frequency on the microwave unit, so we had to ask the lab T.A., Kenneth...

[NutCrackerBoy]

There have been more than one [natural fission reactor]. There was another in what is now called Brazil.

Thanks, Dr. Stochastic! Did you also know geckos reproduce parthenogenetically?

[yankeedame]

Bump for a later read when I have time to think.

Calvin and Hobbes are laying on small hill on a warm afernoon, lazily watching the clouds drift by.

Hobbes: "I just lay here and think and think...and then I wake up."

[Shryke]

Looser!

Ahh! Ahh! Personal attack! Vitriol! DAMN you tree-worshipping heathens to HELL! I'm not looser!

It's also a known fact that I win the debate when you misspell "loser", despite your false, unprovable, devil "math".

As I often tell PatrickHenry: FEEL the burn of my scalding, undefeatable logic!

[NutCrackerBoy]

FEEL the burn of my scalding, undefeatable logic!

Yow!

[yankeedame]

Two billion years ago, the interstellar highway patrol were a lot more strict.

But now, thanks to the Supreme Court....

[PatrickHenry]

As I often tell PatrickHenry: FEEL the burn of my scalding, undefeatable logic!

Logic is the devil's tool. I am impervious to its effects.

[Shryke]

Can "nothing" actually "exist", or does it just sort of non-exist?

Um, that's a toughie. I don't have my required amoount of JB to correctly answer that question. Therefore, I'll settle for labeling you a.....blasphemer!

Take that.

[El Gato]

I think he deduced it as a consequence of Maxwell's equations.

While you can deduce the speed of light from Maxwell's equations, it's something of a trick, and doesn't get into the notion that it must be the same for all observers regardless of relative motion. Eisten started with the speed of light being constant for all observers, and deduced that is was also the maxium possible speed, and that E=mc2. The observations that suggested this assumption were the Michelson-Morely eperiments that attempted to deduce the "true" motion of the earth through the "ether" by measuring differences in the speed of light in different directions. No difference was found.