[doc30]

This is very interesting work and it builds on the fact that the fundamental constants in science (e.g. speed of light, electron charge and Plank's Constant) have not changed significantly over the times cale of billions of years. My only issue is that whoever wrote this article didn't proof read it. One Angstrom is equal to 1/10 of a nanometer, not 10 nanometers. The precision and accuracy of these measurements is very, very high. Most lab spectrophotometers do not have 0.001 nm precision. Those measurements are from some seriously high end instruments. I also like the researcher's choice of using emission lines.

[doc30]

Interested in doing a cosmology ping?

[starfish923]

Whew, I feel much better.
I was so worried. :o)

Interesting article.

[SlowBoat407]

I'm fascinated by the notion that all of our constants might be shifting over time, and we'd never know it because their determining factors are shifting as well.

'Scuse me while I unbend my mind.

[Red Badger]

I am SOOOO relieved. I was losing sleep............

[Verginius Rufus]

Fine structure constant unchanged for billions of years.

All Bush's fault, for not accepting the Kyoto Protocol.

[Doctor Stochastic]

Death, Taxes, the Fine Structure Constant. Some things just don't change.

[js1138]

...but another method (looking at absorption lines) that gives more precise results involves systematic errors that cause different people using the method to come up with different results...

Did someone sleep throught the class on significant digits?

[djf]

Interesting. I would suggest the jury is still out on this question.

Alot of people are seeming to jump on the Sakharov bandwagon, myself included. I think the end result will be relegating Einstein to having come up with the geometry but not the causality.

If Newton is the first order, Einstein is the second order, we might not be able to see any variations from Einsteins predictions until we get very, very close to the speed of light, at fantastically large energies.

All we need is one good way to measure or calculate the ZPE.. then all the infinities will be normalized.

Free energy would be a bonus!