[Joker]

Good News Everyone!

Wow, if this is true, then that means not only is everything we know completely going to be turned on it's end. It also means that Futurama was right!

A pair of German physicists claim to have broken the speed of light - an achievement that would undermine our entire understanding of space and time.

According to Einstein's special theory of relativity, it would require an infinite amount of energy to propel an object at more than 186,000 miles per second.

However, Dr Gunter Nimtz and Dr Alfons Stahlhofen, of the University of Koblenz, say they may have breached a key tenet of that theory.

The pair say they have conducted an experiment in which microwave photons - energetic packets of light - travelled "instantaneously" between a pair of prisms that had been moved up to 3ft apart.

Being able to travel faster than the speed of light would lead to a wide variety of bizarre consequences.

For instance, an astronaut moving faster than it would theoretically arrive at a destination before leaving.

The scientists were investigating a phenomenon called quantum tunnelling, which allows sub-atomic particles to break apparently unbreakable laws.

Dr Nimtz told New Scientist magazine: "For the time being, this is the only violation of special relativity that I know of."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/s...-of-light.html

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.
Cubert: Also impossible
Farnsworth: And what makes my engines truly remarkable is the afterburner, which delivers 200% fuel efficiency.
Cubert: That's especially impossible.
Farnsworth: Not at all. It's very simple.
Cubert: Then explain it.
Farnsworth: Now that's impossible! It came to me in a dream, and I forgot it in another dream.

[NATO_chrisjm]

This better not be like that time when sciance clamed to have solved cold fusion only to find out that no one else could replicate it, not even them.

[Adantes]

I don't get it.
It's from 2007?

"We have NOT broken the speed of light"

[Cryokinetic]

"Sciance" never claimed to have solved cold fusion, just a couple of guys did. "Science" is what concluded that they hadn't solved cold fusion.

P.S. I'm skeptical about the accuracy of this article.

[knirb01]

Originally Posted by Adantes

I don't get it.
It's from 2007?

"We have NOT broken the speed of light"

Truly nice find

[kashak]

But what if some observations, some yet to come observations will show that relativity does can be "overcome"?

[~Hazdaz~]

I think we are going to need more than just one link from 2007 to believe any of this... or is it that this news story is from the past - and we are only reading about it now because of some other Law of physics that has been broken.

On the other hand, wasn't there a recent news story about teleportation of particles - that would also break the laws of physics and the speed of light... wonder if these stories are somehow related.

[lowmankind]

pfeh... I subscribe to Infinite Improbability as a means to travel through space, wherein you (your ship) occupy every possible point in space simultaneously for a brief moment, before settling on the intended destination...

side effects include turning into a penguin, the creation of whales and bowls of petunias, and truly mediocre films... many of these wear off, but others are sadly more permanent...

oh, and "hurrah for science. woo."

[Gage23]

We will break the speed of light sooner or later

we have too or else space travel is impossable (or it will just take forever to get anywhere)

[Marscaleb]

"We broke the speed of light!"
Get me some glue, I'll put it back together...