CERN may have found something that moves faster than light.

Really cool story here

News from The Associated Press

 

Throw out the physics books, start rewriting the Star Trek franchise.

 

Usain Bolt going for a jog, IMO.

 

About two standard deviations above my intelligence level.

Doesn't seem that 90 nanoseconds greatly alters much, though.

 

I'm not a physics guy, but 90 nanoseconds changes everything. It'd be like water flowing up a hill, or Skylar McBee dunking a basketball over Lebron James. It is supposed to be absolutely and fundamentally impossible.

 

A brisk jog though.

 

Basically, for an object to accelerate to the speed of light, it would have to consume infinite energy. This would more or less shit on Einstein, unless they have managed to actually discover tachyons, but I don't think that is what this is.

 

I don't see it, from a practical standpoint. Seems that is several decimal points outside the significant figure limitations.

From an understanding of nature, and a theoretical standpoint, cool. From a practical standpoint, if we take E=mc^2, and just add 90 ns to the speed of light... well hell, we pretty much already round the speed of light anyway.

I dunno. Other than a pat on the back, a noble prize and a few key words changed in a textbook or two, I don't really see the impact. But, I am also not a physics guy.

 

What's crazy is that this could be the second monumental scientific discovery in the last year. The organism that was discovered to have arsenic instead of phosphorous as part of its makeup being the other.

 

All I want to know is does this make 'warp speed' theoretically possible now? We once thought that it was impossible to break the sound barrier, but we shattered that notion.

I do hope that they invent an energy/matter transporter soon. My back can't take long drives, and I loathe flying. 'Beam me up Scotty!'

 

Familiarize yourself with this:

Professor Hubert Farnsworth: These are the dark matter engines I invented. They allow my starship to travel between galaxies in mere hours.
Cubert J. Farnsworth: That's impossible. You can't go faster than the speed of light.
Professor Hubert Farnsworth: Of course not. That's why scientists increased the speed of light in 2208.
Cubert J. Farnsworth: Also impossible.

 

But here's my question, if a neutrino turned off the light switch could it be in bed before it got dark?

 

Black holes are amongst us....
Supermassive Black Hole at Center of Milky Way, Study Hints

 

Theoretically, yes. I think

 

I don't think you understand what Einstein's equation really means, then. This means what we thought was "infinity" or "everything" isn't. It isn't that it's only 90 nanoseconds more, it's that our concept of "infinity" is wrong.

 

I never touched mass-energy equivalence, so you are very likely correct. I had no idea that it had anything to do with infinity, however... thought it was used only to relate mass to energy via a constant...

 

The constant being the maximum possible.

 

Well, the speed of light, at any rate. But yes, the maximum possible is now currently... +90ns +/- 10ns.

Again, not really going to change the measurement of a blast of TNT very much.

 

i don't really get it, but it sounded pretty cool.

 

There are theoretical ramifications to this, not physical ones like TNT. Obviously, the world is exactly the same today as it was yesterday. But our understanding of it's underpinnings may be completely wrong.