Tonight I'm going to take a break from the political world and write about something about which I know even less...
I'm by no stretch of the imagination a scientist or for that matter a physicist. I enjoy, however, reading what I call the "executive summaries" of scientific theories; they capture my imagination and remind me how little we know. Ben Folds puts it best with his lyric, "the more you know, you know you don't know shit..." I'll pass along what I understand to be the potential implications of the study...
A recent study at the Gran Sasso research facility in Italy may show this to be true regarding the axiom of the speed of light being our universal speed limit. The findings suggest there are subatomic particles, called neutrinos, which travel faster than light. I recently read Why Does E=mc2 (I recommend you check it out) and it helped me gain a simple and basic understanding of the famous equation. The important thing you need to know is the "c" stands for the speed of light. This potential discovery could be a simple re-calibration of the universal speed limit ,which is currently 299,792,458 meters per second, to a revised 299,798,454....(I know, right!?)...and this is probably the least sexy implication.
Another axiom potentially at risk is causality; meaning cause always comes before effect. This is the same core concept which makes travelling backwards in time impossible. So the good news is, we may not have to throw away our flux-capacitors! November 5th, 1955 may still be within our reach! The bad news is, if the principle understanding of causality is proven to be false, it is back to the drawing board in every sense of the word.
Other possible good news, if causality holds its ground, is this potential discovery could be the break through some physicists need in their continued quest towards a "theory of everything." Einstein was said to be working towards a unified theory until his death. Could this be the key he was missing? We may find out soon enough...
If this does wreck everything physicists have held to be true, I guess another Ben Folds lyric from the same song may provide some comfort: "It's okay if you don't know everything..."
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