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Speed of Light Exceeded?

Posted by kdawson on from the when-pigs-fly-faster-than-light dept.

PreacherTom writes "Scientists at the NEC Research Institute in Princeton, NJ are reporting that they have broken the speed of light. For the experiment, the researchers manipulated a vapor of laser-irradiated atoms, causing a pulse that propagates about 300 times faster than light would travel in a vacuum. The pulse seemed to exit the chamber even before entering it." This research was published in Nature, so presumably it was peer-reviewed. It's impossible from the CBC story to determine what is being claimed. First of all they get the physics wrong by asserting that Einstein's special relativity only decrees that matter cannot exceed the speed of light. Wrong. Matter cannot touch the speed of light in vacuum; energy (e.g. light) cannot exceed it; and information cannot be transferred faster than this limit. What exactly the researchers achieved, and what they claim, can only be determined at this point by subscribers to Nature.

18 of 393 comments (clear)

  1. It works... by fortunato · · Score: 5, Funny

    I wrote this yesterday.

    1. Re:It works... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      expect a dupe tomorrow

    2. Re:It works... by jimmydevice · · Score: 4, Funny

      Researchers note that the equipment was set to 11 to produce the results.

    3. Re:It works... by EinZweiDrei · · Score: 5, Funny

      'Nothing travels faster than the speed of light with the possible exception of bad news, which obeys its own special laws. The Hingefreel people of Arkintoofle Minor did try to build spaceships that were powered by bad news but they didn't work particularly well and were so extremely unwelcome whenever they arrived anywhere that there wasn't really any point in being there.'

      --
      Perhaps life really is full of possibilities.
    4. Re:It works... by frdmfghtr · · Score: 4, Funny

      expect a dupe tomorrow


      No, this is the dupe. The original will be posted tomorrow.
      --
      Government's idea of a balanced budget: take money from the right pocket to balance...oh who am I kidding?
  2. Re:Results of experiment published in the past by darkitecture · · Score: 5, Funny


    This story is from November 2000.
    So the dupe will be posted 6 years ago? Awesome! I'm looking forward to it.

  3. Time . . . by OverlordQ · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Good. No, the answer is an orange and two lemons."

    "Lemons?"

    "If I have three lemons and three oranges and I lose two oranges and a lemon, what do I have left?"

    "Huh?"

    "Okay, so you think that time flows that way, do you?"

    -Mostly Harmless

    --
    Your hair look like poop, Bob! - Wanker.
  4. Obligitory Futurama by Rik+Sweeney · · Score: 5, Funny

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

    --
    Summation 2
  5. Re:Results of experiment published in the past by unitron · · Score: 5, Funny

    So the dupe will be posted 6 years ago? Awesome! I'm looking forward to it.

    Shouldn't you be looking backward to it?

    --

    I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.

  6. Funny by __aahlyu4518 · · Score: 4, Funny

    On my google startpage I have the 'quotes of the day'. Just now I noticed there was a quote from Woody Allen : "It is impossible to travel faster than the speed of light, and certainly not desirable, as one's hat keeps blowing off."

  7. Re:Group Velocity Again by jez9999 · · Score: 5, Funny

    So YOU were the one causing that damn red blob when I was trying to watch the eclipse? Go test out your new laser toy elsewhere!

    --
    == Jez ==
    Do you miss Firefox? Try Pale Moon.
  8. Re:here is my example by FractalZone · · Score: 5, Funny

    A nice example, but what is it supposed to show?

    Sufficient amounts of ingested caffeine can make everything seem faster! I like experiements which require one to consume an entire can of coffee in order to cut slots it in to do psudo-physics research. :-)

    --
    "You're young, you're drunk, you're in bed, you have knives; shit happens." -- Angelina Jolie
  9. Re:here is my example by kickedfortrolling · · Score: 5, Funny

    you're just lucky you're not in soviet russia- where i understand the subject and objects of a statement are reversed for the sake of comedy

    --
    --AlexC
    Just because I dont agree with climate change doesnt make me a troll
  10. Dupe -- The Space Shuttle Beat Them by fire-eyes · · Score: 4, Funny

    Maybe it's due to the time bending effects of this, but the space shuttle already beat them.

    CNN doesn't lie!
    http://fire-eyes.org/gal/v/hmr/cln/shuttleisfast.j pg.html

    --
    -- Note: If you don't agree with me, don't bother replying. I won't read it.
  11. Re:here is my example by Gerzel · · Score: 4, Funny

    We do! We just send some stuff to other places in the past to make you feel better about yourselves.

  12. Re:here is my example by The+Warlock · · Score: 4, Funny

    Exactly. And it's gotten a lot easier now that we've figured out how to break the speed of light.

    --
    I've upped my standards, so up yours.
  13. Re:here is my example by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    In soviet russia, the subject and objects reverse YOU!

  14. Re:here is my example by hotdiggitydawg · · Score: 4, Funny

    Obligatory Steven Wright:

    "I put instant coffee in a microwave oven and almost went back in time."