Researcher Says Speed Of Light Slowing Down

By James Donahue

February 2006

Ever since Albert Einstein published his famous theory of relativity, science has accepted the concept that the “c” in the equation e=mc 2  represents a constant speed of light.

There are two assumptions linked to that concept that have long been accepted almost as fact: that the speed of light is 299,792,458 meters a second and that speed is as fast as anything can travel through the universe.

But Einstein lived and worked a century ago, and if there is anything that we can be assured of in this strange universe, it is that nothing is constant. All things change. And the reason they call his formula a “theory” is because it is exactly that, a belief based on all of the knowledge known to science at the time it was written. Theories rarely can be proven so that they became a law of science.

Since Einstein, evidence has appeared that suggests the speed of light can be breached. By using quantum mechanics, which does not agree with relativity, physicists have measured photons – particles of electromagnetic radiation – traveling faster than the speed of light. This even has a name. It is called “superluminal” speed.

Also, physicist Alain Aspect and a team of researchers at the University of Paris, performed an experiment in 1982 that proved that under certain circumstances, subatomic particles like electrons can instantaneously communicate with each other, even if they are separated by billions of miles.

And now, a new theory by Dr. Joao Magueijo, a member of a team of researchers at Sydney, Australia, indicates that not long after the Big Bang light hit a “speed bump” and ever since then it has been slowing down. Thus that speed of light established by Einstein is not constant at all.

Like all of the other revelations that followed Einstein’s work, Magueijo’s new theory is meeting resistance from fellow physicists, who don’t like seeing the pillars of the universe they thought they knew and understood being pulled out from under them.

The idea has prompted new research by a six-member team led by Professor John Webb and Dr. Michael Murphy who want to put this theory to the test.

To do this, the team is utilizing the world’s largest optical telescope at the Paranal Observatory in northern Chile to study light from distant quasars over a trillion times brighter than our sun.

They reason that the light coming from these distant quasars has been traveling for most of the age of the universe. Murphy said this light “carries with it information about what happened to it along the way.”

By carefully measuring this light, and working with an open mind, the team hopes to prove or disprove Magueijo’s theory and put the controversy surrounding it to rest.

If he is correct, Magueijo not only shows Einstein wrong, but he proves the inconsistency of a living universe that is in a constant state of change. And that will not surprise us since we believe the universe to be a living growing and moving communication system. We perceive ourselves to be a part of this great system.

The problem with early physics is that scientists sought to find all things constant and adhering to specific laws of nature. Theories of quantum physics, however, challenge everything the old school taught, including the work of Einstein. And Einstein was considered a rebel in his day. He came a long way forward, but just didn’t come far enough.