More on the Fine Structure Constant

Bonker writes "Neat news from the Beeb. It turns out that data collected from observation of quasars indicates that the fine structure constant of the universe, aka 'Alpha', may have changed since the universe began. It may have been very slightly smaller than it is right now. The article hints that other constants we're familiar with, such as high, holy 'c', may also vary over time. Of course values can't have changed dramatically, because that would mean that low-weight atoms such as carbon would be unstable, and without carbon, there wouldn't be anyone around to measure the fine structure constant anyway." We ran a story about this last year. It looks like the team has continued to check their work for errors and hasn't found any yet.

Comments

Speaking of Change

[miracle69]

Is anyone else irritated because the Slashdot icon in the upper right hand corner no longer sends you back to "www.slashdot.org" but instead to the topic page (Example: "science.slashdot.org" or "ask.slashdot.org)? It's bugging the shit outta me.

Can't spell
Can't conjugate
Can't proofread

and now...

Can't keep consistency.