The speed of light may not have been constant over time

Though it is not addressed by this article (which deals with how c may have changed over time), the first thing I thought of was the controversial idea that there may be corridors in space where the speed of light is higher than in conventional space:

www.newscientist.com...

some more info on VSL theory:



www.prospect-magazine.co.uk...

www.csmonitor.com...

I find this theory very interesting and hopfully it is true since the potential implications are mind-boggling. I would be interested to hear what some of the boards science-buffs think about this.

Another thing I found very interesting is that earth has a natural nuclear reactor. I didn't know this was even possible in our low grav environment(compared to the sun that is) although my understanding of science is somwhat limited.

This ought to get the creationist community very excited. They have been preaching this for years.

Anyone hear about these scientists that can increase the speed of light 300times not sure of the applications of this but Ive found it interesting

LIGHT

Originally posted by ShadowXIX
Anyone hear about these scientists that can increase the speed of light 300times not sure of the applications of this but Ive found it interesting

They didn't increase the speed of light, but increased the group velocity of the light pulses. There is a distinction between the two. No actual particles go faster than the speed of light in that experiment, but the pulse they form together does. Think of it as a point for a laser on earth shining on the moon moving faster than the speed of light when you move the laser from left to right. The dot goes faster than the speed of light, but no particle does.

I don't understand why c must change when the fine structure constant is different. Can't h, the planck constant, or e, the charge of the electron, vary. I don't like the idea of constants varying, especially the speed of light, but if that's what the evidence tells us we need to accept it. It will not cause that much problems though. A varying c can easily be incorporated in general relativity or electromagnetism. The GUTs will have the largest problems, because they have to explain why c can change and why it changed the way it did.

BlackJackal, do you understand the difference between the creationists claims that the speed of light was infinite 7000 years ago, which is why we sees light from distant stars now, and this article's claim that the speed of light varied 4,5 parts in 10^8 billions of years ago? (source)

Originally posted by amantine
BlackJackal, do you understand the difference between the creationists claims that the speed of light was infinite 7000 years ago, which is why we sees light from distant stars now, and this article's claim that the speed of light varied 4,5 parts in 10^8 billions of years ago? (source)

Yes, I understand but that will not stop some of them from jumping up and down screaming I told you so. Mark my words three months from now a creationist website will claim that their theories have been scientifically validated. Creationists have a way of taking what they want to hear out of an article and disregarding the rest.

mark my words