Einstein's theory of relativity, E=mc2 (where 'c' is the speed of light) is more or less based on the prediction that nothing can consistently travel at the speed of light; ~ 300,000 km/s. This is roughly a million times faster than sound, and fast enough to circle the Earth more than 7 times in one second.

But, Scientist John Singleton from Los Alamos National Laboratory has created a gadget that abuses radio waves so severely that they finally give in and travel faster than light.

Singleton's discovery could have wide-ranging technological impacts in areas such as medicine and communications, he said.

"Because nobody's really thought about things that travel faster than light before, this is a wide-open technological field," Singleton said.

One possible use for the resulting speedy radio waves - which are packed into a very powerful wave the size of a pencil point - could be the creation of a new generation of cell phones that communicate directly to satellites, rather than transmitting through relay towers as they now do.

http://www.santafenewmexican.com/Healthand...ster_than_light

Looks like we'll be able to travel back in time soon...

J.Singleton is not new to this particular topic:
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/Xplore/login.js...thDecision=-203

My guess is that Einstein Theory is not particularly affected by this, at the most an extension to it will be needed:
http://www.rp-photonics.com/superluminal_transmission.html


jaclaz

Einstein (and scientist) is wrong, there is NO speed of light, it is instantaneous.Simply.

Radio waves are light. So I guess he is saying he made light go faster. I don't think that would violate Special relativity.



You do realize we can measure the speed of light with very high precision and when we communicate with spacecraft there is a delay?

How about we be precise about this, shall we? ;)

Radio waves and "light" are both forms of electromagnetic radiation. They simply have different wavelengths. What we perceive as "light" is a very very narrow band of this EM radiation. Maxwell's Equations, which govern all EM radiation, use two constants to determine the behavior of the EM waves. There are two constants used in these equations, the permittivity of free space and the permeability of free space. When dealing with EM radiation traveling through matter, the constants are changed (specifically, they increase). With a bit of derivation from Maxwell's Equations, you can determine the speed of and electromagnetic wave based on the permittivity and permeability of the material. As far as we know, there is no way of reducing those constants below their free space values, but that would basically be the only way of increasing the "speed of light".

And -X-, if the value of c were to change, all of Special Relativity would go along with it. Einstein himself was quoted to say that Statistical Mechanics was likely the only modern area of physics that would never be disproved.

Thanks. I didn't want to get all technical and should have enclosed light with quotation marks.

To be very accurate Maxwell Equations DO NOT "govern" anything.
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/govern

Maxwell theories and equations on electromagnetics are the best known today explanations about the behaviour of EM.

EM (like everything else) "governs" itself pretty well. (and did so a loong time before Maxwell was born)

jaclaz

"...describe the behavior of..." is probably the best thing instead of "govern" there... good catch.

leave it to Zxian to clear things up, thanks

Hmm, not sure about this. It seems controversial http://digg.com/general_sciences/Scientist...ster_Than_Light

Reminds me of the quantum entanglement experiment.

Hmm, not sure about this. It seems controversial http://digg.com/general_sciences/Scientist...ster_Than_Light

Reminds me of the quantum entanglement experiment.