Speed of light is slowing down: was Einstein wrong?

18 January 2006

A daring and controversial scientist who says that the speed of light is slowing down will give a public lecture on Thursday evening at UNSW.

Cosmologist Dr João Magueijo caused a scientific furore in 1999 when he published a paper claiming that light may have travelled much faster at the Big Bang than it does now.

A reader in theoretical physics at Imperial College in London, Dr Magueijo's claim also has indirect support from discoveries by John Webb, professor of astrophysics at UNSW.

Albert Einstein's special theory of relativity says that the speed of light has been moving at a constant 300,000 km per second since the Universe began with the Big Bang.

So was Einstein wrong? "No, it just means that the theory of relativity isn't the last word on the laws that govern the universe," says the 38 year-old Magueijo. "Instead of there being fixed laws, it's possible that the laws themselves are variable, like light itself."

Research published by Dr Webb and his former PhD student, Dr Michael Murphy, has revealed that one of the fundamental laws of physics known as the "fine structure constant" has altered in a way suggesting the mathematical possibility that light has slowed down in the past 12 billion years.

What: Breaking the Laws of Nature: a varying speed of light
Who: Dr João Magueijo (Imperial College, London), author of Faster Than the Speed of Light
When: 7.30pm, Thursday 19 January 2006
Where: Burrows lecture theatre, Old Main Building (Reference J14 on the UNSW map). Parking Free in Barker Street Parking Station after 7pm, entry via UNSW, Gate 14 on Barker Street
Contact: Dr Wilfred Walsh (02) 9385 5588.

For the full story, please go to the Faculty of Science website.