Einstein theory under threat as scientists ‘break’ light speed limit

AS Star Trek’s Mr Spock once remarked to Captain Kirk: “It’s life, but not as we know it.”

He might have been responding to a cosmic claim by scientists in Switzerland who may have just debunked a fundamental law of physics and opened up the prospect of time travel.

According to researchers, Einstein’s theory of special relativity, which demands that nothing can travel faster than light, could be wrong. They say that they have recorded sub-atomic particles travelling faster than light and, if true, the finding will mark the biggest discovery in physics in the past half-century.

Antonio Ereditato, spokesman for the researchers, said measurements taken over three years showed neutrinos from CERN’s physics laboratory near Geneva to Gran Sasso in Italy 730km away, had arrived 60 nanoseconds quicker than light would have done.

Light would have covered the distance in 2.4 thousandths of a second, but the neutrinos took 60 nanoseconds — or 60 billionths of a second — less.

“We have high confidence in our results. We have checked and rechecked for anything that could have distorted our measurements but we found nothing,” he said.

“We now want colleagues to check them independently.”