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Speed of Light Inconstant?

DHR writes "Australian scientists have discovered that light isn't quite as fast as it used to be." We've done previous stories on these findings. Those of you with subscriptions to Nature can read the actual paper, the rest of us will just have to suffer.

23 of 496 comments (clear)

  1. ObTrek Reference by Amazing+Quantum+Man · · Score: 5, Funny

    So, does that explain the ever changing warp scale in Star Trek?

    --
    Fascism starts when the efficiency of the government becomes more important than the rights of the people.
  2. Hmmm.. by Anonvmous+Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I've noticed it takes a while for flourescent lightbulbs to turn on. I guess all of the technology bloat has finally taken a noticable performance hit on light.

    1. Re:Hmmm.. by letxa2000 · · Score: 3, Funny
      When 20 billion light years you reach, move as fast you will not!

  3. But not quite slow enough... by 3Daemon · · Score: 2, Funny

    ...cause my exam in Algorithm Construction is only two days away, and I _really_ could use some extra time =)

  4. Suffering at the speed of light by stefanlasiewski · · Score: 4, Funny

    the rest of us will just have to suffer.

    And given our new knowledge about changes in the speed of light, you'll suffer a little more slowly then you are used to.

    --
    "Can of worms? The can is open... the worms are everywhere."
  5. Australian scientists by Jonny+Ringo · · Score: 5, Funny

    eh their mate, thats not a light.

    Now that's a light.

  6. Finally! by __aaklbk2114 · · Score: 1, Funny

    Now, at least, black holes won't have to work as hard.

  7. I think I've found proof using empirical research by jukal · · Score: 5, Funny

    > "That's illegal. It would be like a cup of coffee sitting on your desk getting hotter," Lineweaver says

    Placing a coffee cup on top of my laptop and running Microsoft Outlook provides the exactly same effect. Where can I get my Nobel prize?

  8. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 1, Funny

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  9. We will have to suffer doubly by JudgeFurious · · Score: 4, Funny

    Since most of us don't have the subscription I deduce that the majority of replies will come from AC's and be composed of nonsense.

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    Appended to the end of comments you post. 120 chars.
  10. An old poke at physicists. by DarkHelmet · · Score: 5, Funny
    I'm reminded of an old joke one of my math professors used to tell me.

    There were a group of people in a room of different professions, and a theorem was put forth onto the board that stated that all Odd Numbers Are Prime. Each person was supposed to disprove this.

    The mathematician started off by looking at each number.

    1, 3, 5, 7, 9.... 9 is not prime, the theorem is false.

    The social worker turned in a long sheet of paper going "2 is prime, 4 is prime, 6 is prime..." etc.

    The physicist turned in the following:

    1... 3... 5... 7... 9 (Experimental Error), 11, 13.....

    --
    /^[A-Z0-9._%+-]+@[A-Z0-9.-]+\.[A-Z]{2,4}$/i
    1. Re:An old poke at physicists. by kisrael · · Score: 4, Funny

      Ehh, I've heard some funnier variants:
      Mathemetician...
      "1 is prime, 3 is prime, 5 is prime, 7 is prime. The result follows by induction."

      Engineer...(kind of close to the physicist one)
      "1 is prime, 3 is prime, 5 is prime, 7 is prime. 9 is...prime enough for practical purposes, 11 is prime..."

      And my favorite
      Computer Scientist...
      "1 is prime, 1 is prime, 1 is prime, 1 is prime, 1 is prime..."

      I think all these better reflect on their professions (and I hate the variants where one of the professions "gets it right", usually told by a member of that profession.

      1 is prime, 3 is prime, 5 is prime, 7 is prime,

      --
      SO YOU'RE GOING TO DIE: The Comic for Dealing with Death
  11. Re:Makes no sense. by garcia · · Score: 2, Funny

    they are scientists, they understand things better than we do, that's how ;-)

  12. Re:Blame CO2 by InsaneGeek · · Score: 3, Funny

    Light's just getting a bit older and isn't as fast as it used to be. See how you feel after a 30 nano seconds of pick-up basketball, the parts just don't work the same when you get that old.

  13. Nothing's like it used to be by wrinkledshirt · · Score: 5, Funny

    Back in my day, light was blimblamming all over the place! We had GOOD light in those days. Yessiree, you couldn't go outside with your onion strapped to your belt (as was the fashion at the time) without getting knocked over by rays of light all the time! Not like today's LAZY light, mind you.

    --

    --------
    Bleah! Heh heh heh... BLEAH BLEAH!!! Ha ha ha ha...

    1. Re:Nothing's like it used to be by nanojath · · Score: 3, Funny
      My favorite line from the article... "The discovery means faster-than-light travel, which is prohibited by the law of relativity, may one day be possible."


      Yeah, big freakin' deal if light's only going 75 mph by then.

      --

      It Is the Nature of Information to Transgress Artificial Boundaries

  14. Re:Makes no sense. by merlyn · · Score: 5, Funny

    I knew this performer once. Her stage name was "Infinity". I always wanted to take her out to dinner, just so when they said "how many in your party?", I could say "infinity plus one".

  15. Carl Sagan put it well by Cato+the+Elder · · Score: 4, Funny

    Yes, they laughed at the Wright brothers. But they also laughed at the Marx brothers. --From A Demon-Haunted World

  16. Re:Makes no sense. by grammar+fascist · · Score: 3, Funny

    Let me guess: you didn't take her out to dinner, because you knew that if you did that (which you undoubtedly would), she would never go out with you again.

    --
    I got my Linux laptop at System76.
  17. Re:Dr. Walt Brown agrees with the idea by EvilBastard · · Score: 2, Funny

    "The universe is only 6000 years old, and as one of the supporting pieces of evidence, here's some measurements from something that's 15 billion years old."

    He's about as deserving of the Doctor title as Doctor Nick Riviera

  18. Another poke at physicists - from a chemist by WIAKywbfatw · · Score: 4, Funny

    This one came from my old chemistry teacher:

    A philosopher, a mathematician and a physicist are at one end of a very, very long room. An observer tells them that there's a bottle of fine whisky on a table at the other end of the room, and that they can take as many leaps as they like to get to the other side and claim the prize but that every step must cover half the remaining distance, no more, no less.

    The philosopher stands still, and contemplates whether or not the table and the whisky are there at all.

    The mathematician does some quick thinking, and works out that he can never really reach the table as there will always be a finite distance, no matter how small, left to cover. He too stands his ground.

    The physicist sets off across the room. He makes one, two, three, four jumps until he's withing arm's length of the table, shouts "that's close enough!" and grabs the bottle for himself.

    (And after all that, what did I go on to do at university? Yep, astrophysics. Part astronomy, part physics, part mathematics and, at least with the options I took, part philosophy. No wonder I'm not a scientist by profession any more.)

    --

    "Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
  19. Implications, implications by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Does this mean when I get old I'll be able to open the refrigerator before the light comes on?

  20. Retraction by Bingo+Foo · · Score: 2, Funny

    Mathematica 4.1 for Linux
    Copyright 1988-2000 Wolfram Research, Inc.
    -- Motif graphics initialized --

    In[1]:= PrimeQ[1]

    Out[1]= False

    In[2]:=

    --
    taken! (by Davidleeroth) Thanks Bingo Foo!