João Magueijo's new book, "Faster Than The Speed Of Light: The Story Of A Scientific Speculation," was recently published by Perseus Publishing. Here is the cover.
Here is the introduction from the publisher.
Nothing travels faster than the speed of light, and light travels at one fixed speed. This idea is considered a foundation of modern physics, but what if it is wrong? Theoretical physicist Magueijo presents the idea that light traveled faster in the early universe than it does today. The varying speed of light theory solves some of the most intractable problems in cosmology, and could have major implications for the study of physics.
Philip Morrison, a professor of physics (emeritus) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, enjoyed the book and reviewed it for Scientific American. Here is how he starts.
Breaking the old speed limit posted by one Albert Einstein in his 20s, this book deploys a racy and provocative text to convey its popularized content of a new cosmology. Jocular, ironic, witty, self-centered, even indignant, Magueijo is all too ready to castigate his adversaries, those comfortable gatekeepers of learning. The author is no aspiring youth but a tenured professor of theoretical physics, age 35. In spite of his own stature within learned gates -- University of Lisbon, then Cambridge on a prime fellowship, now enjoying tenure at great Imperial College in London -- his voice is embittered.
Please read the full review to see how Magueijo challenges Einstein.
Faster than light? Einstein and his partner, the Dutch astronomer Willem de Sitter, admitted only one way this could happen: with repulsive gravity. It is in their theory!
Perhaps there is another way, suggests Magueijo. If matter in motion is too slow for light, why not make the speed of light faster and faster into the past? Throwing out heavyweight Einstein and his near constant speed of light is no easy task. Yet that is the burden of the new iconoclasts. Maybe they can make a cosmos with wildly varying speeds of light, and maybe they can keep the gas uniform, but they give no clear reward for so denying our well-tested Einstein on this theorist's journey into the past.
Source: Philip Morrison, Scientific American, March 10, 2003
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