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Time is an illusion from the manufacturer of space.
Robert Gainer


>From: Robert Eno 
>Reply-To: Navigation Mailing List 
>To: NAVIGATION-L@LISTSERV.WEBKAHUNA.COM
>Subject: Re: Time slowing down?
>Date: Fri, 6 May 2005 13:12:31 -0400
>
>At the risk of initiating an off-topic metaphysical discussion, this begs
>the question:
>
>What is time?
>
>Robert
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Peter Fogg" 
>To: 
>Sent: Friday, May 06, 2005 3:03 AM
>Subject: Time slowing down?
>
>
>>This article was originally published in Britain's 'The Guardian'
>>newspaper.
>>This excerpt comes from Melbourne's 'The Age'
>>
>>http://www.theage.com.au/news/Science/Experts-challenge-Einstein-over-speed-
>>of-light/2005/04/11/1113071911054.html
>>
>>copied here since the online version may require registration before
>>access.
>>
>>"A century after Albert Einstein published his most famous ideas,
>>physicists
>>are commemorating the occasion by trying to demolish one of them.
>>Astronomers were to tell experts gathering at Warwick University in
>>England
>>overnight to celebrate the anniversary of the great man's "miracle year"
>>that the speed of light - Einstein's unchanging yardstick that underpins
>>his
>>special theory of relativity - might be slowing down.
>>Michael Murphy, of the Institute of Astronomy at Cambridge University,
>>said:
>>"We are claiming something extraordinary here. The findings suggest there
>>is
>>a more fundamental theory of the way that light and matter interact; and
>>that special relativity, at its foundation, is actually wrong."
>>Einstein's insistence that the speed of light was always the same set up
>>many of his big ideas and established the bedrock of modern physics. Dr
>>Murphy said: "It could turn out that special relativity is a very good
>>approximation but it's missing a little bit. That little bit may be the
>>doorknob to a whole new universe and a whole new set of fundamental laws."
>>His team did not measure a change in the speed of light directly. Instead,
>>they analysed flickering light from very distant celestial objects called
>>quasars.
>>Their light takes billions of years to travel to Earth, letting
>>astronomers
>>see the fundamental laws of the universe at work during its earliest days.
>>The observations, from the Keck telescope in Hawaii, suggest the way
>>certain
>>wavelengths of light are absorbed has changed.
>>If true, it means that a measure of the strength of the electromagnetic
>>force that holds atoms together has changed by about 0.001 per cent since
>>the big bang. The speed of light depends on this measure. If one varies
>>with
>>time then the other probably does too, meaning Einstein got it wrong. If
>>light moved faster in the early universe than now, physicists would have
>>to
>>rethink many fundamental theories.
>>Dr Murphy's conclusions are based on work carried out in 2001 with John
>>Webb
>>at the University of NSW. Other astronomers disputed the findings, and a
>>smaller study using a different telescope last year suggested no change.
>>Dr Murphy's team is analysing the results from the largest experiment so
>>far, using light from 143 bright stellar objects."
>>
>>- Guardian

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