Roll over Einstein: Law of physics challenged

One of the very pillars of physics and Einstein's theory of relativity - that nothing can go faster than the speed of light - was rocked Thursday by new findings from one of the world's foremost laboratories. European researchers said they clocked an oddball type of subatomic particle called a neutrino going faster than the 186,282 miles per second that has long been considered the cosmic speed limit. The claim was met with skepticism, with one outside physicist calling it the equivalent of saying you have a flying carpet. In fact, the researchers themselves are not ready to proclaim a discovery and are asking other physicists to independently try to verify their findings. "The feeling that most people have is this can't be right, this can't be real," said James Gillies, a spokesman for the European Organization for Nuclear Research, or CERN, which provided the particle accelerator that sent neutrinos on their breakneck 454-mile trip underground from Geneva to Italy. Going faster than light is something that is just not supposed to happen according to Einstein's 1905 special theory of relativity - the one made famous by the equation E equals mc2. But no one is rushing out to rewrite the science books just yet. It is "a revolutionary discovery if confirmed," said Indiana University theoretical physicist Alan Kostelecky, who has worked on this concept for a quarter of a century. Stephen Parke, who is head theoretician at the Fermilab near Chicago and was not part of the research, said: "It's a shock. It's going to cause us problems, no doubt about that - if it's true." Even if these results are confirmed, they won't change at all the way we live or the way the world works. After all, these particles have presumably been speed demons for billions of years. But the finding will fundamentally alter our understanding of how the universe operates, physicists said. Einstein's special relativity theory, which says that energy equals mass times the speed of light squared, underlies "pretty much everything in modern physics," said John Ellis, a theoretical physicist at CERN who was not involved in the experiment. "It has worked perfectly up until now." France's National Institute for Nuclear and Particle Physics Research collaborated with Italy's Gran Sasso National Laboratory on the experiment at CERN. CERN reported that a neutrino beam fired from a particle accelerator near Geneva to a lab 454 miles (730 kilometers) away in Italy traveled 60 nanoseconds faster than the speed of light. Scientists calculated the margin of error at just 10 nanoseconds. (A nanosecond is one-billionth of a second.) Given the enormous implications of the find, the researchers spent months checking and rechecking their results to make sure there were no flaws in the experiment. A team at Fermilab had similar faster-than-light results in 2007, but a large margin of error undercut its scientific significance. If anything is going to throw a cosmic twist into Einstein's theories, it's not surprising that it's the strange particles known as neutrinos. These are odd slivers of an atom that have confounded physicists for about 80 years. The neutrino has almost no mass, comes in three different "flavors," may have its own antiparticle and has been seen shifting from one flavor to another while shooting out from our sun, said physicist Phillip Schewe, communications director at the Joint Quantum Institute in Maryland. Columbia University physicist Brian Greene, author of the book "Fabric of the Cosmos," said neutrinos theoretically can travel at different speeds depending on how much energy they have. And some mysterious particles whose existence is still only theorized could be similarly speedy, he said. Fermilab team spokeswoman Jenny Thomas, a physics professor at the University College of London, said there must be a "more mundane explanation" for the European findings. She said Fermilab's experience showed how hard it is to measure accurately the distance, time and angles required for such a claim. Nevertheless, Fermilab, which shoots neutrinos from Chicago to Minnesota, has already begun working to try to verify or knock down the new findings. And that's exactly what the team in Geneva wants. Gillies told The Associated Press that the readings have so astounded researchers that "they are inviting the broader physics community to look at what they've done and really scrutinize it in great detail, and ideally for someone elsewhere in the world to repeat the measurements." Only two labs elsewhere in the world can try to replicate the work: Fermilab and a Japanese installation that has been slowed by the tsunami and earthquake. And Fermilab's measuring systems aren't nearly as precise as the Europeans' and won't be upgraded for a while, said Fermilab scientist Rob Plunkett. Drew Baden, chairman of the physics department at the University of Maryland, said it is far more likely that the CERN findings are the result of measurement errors or some kind of fluke. Tracking neutrinos is very difficult, he said. "This is ridiculous what they're putting out," Baden said. "Until this is verified by another group, it's flying carpets. It's cool, but ..." So if the neutrinos are pulling this fast one on Einstein, how can it happen? Parke said there could be a cosmic shortcut through another dimension - physics theory is full of unseen dimensions - that allows the neutrinos to beat the speed of light. Indiana's Kostelecky theorizes that there are situations when the background is different in the universe, not perfectly symmetrical as Einstein says. Those changes in background may alter both the speed of light and the speed of neutrinos. But that doesn't mean Einstein's theory is ready for the trash heap, he said. "I don't think you're going to ever kill Einstein's theory. You can't. It works," Kostelecky said. There are just times when an additional explanation is needed, he said. If the European findings are correct, "this would change the idea of how the universe is put together," Columbia's Greene said. But he added: "I would bet just about everything I hold dear that this won't hold up to scrutiny."

Live Well, Love Much, Laugh Often

Live Well, Love Much, Laugh Often

My Religion is simple

My Religion is simple; My Religion is kindness.

Dalai Lama

There is no such thing as an isolated problem

Understanding unity helps to solve humanity's biggest challenges. There is no such thing as an isolated problem. By injuring any part of the world's system, you injure yourself. There is no such thing as a win/lose situation. Think of life on this planet in terms of systems and not detached elements. Broaden your field of vision and assimilate the knowledge you have. See that the environment does not belong to any single country to exploit and then disregard. You cannot afford to think of your relationship with the earth as a one-night stand. There's no such thing as a free glass of milk. It's time to buy the cow.

Za Rinpoche

Be Content with what you have

Be Content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you.

Lao Tzu

may the rainbow always touch your shoulder

"May the warm winds of heaven blow softly upon your house,
May the Great Spirit bless all who enter there,
May your moccasins make happy tracks in many snows,
And may the rainbow always touch your shoulder."

Rather than going to church, I attend a sweat lodge

"Rather than going to church, I attend a sweat lodge; rather than accepting bread and toast [sic] from the Holy Priest, I smoke a ceremonial pipe to come into Communion with the Great Spirit; and rather than kneeling with my hands placed together in prayer, I let sweet grass be feathered over my entire being for spiritual cleansing and allow the smoke to carry my prayers into the heavens. I am a Mi'kmaq, and this is how we pray." Noah Augustine, from his article "Grandfather was a knowing Christian," Toronto Star, Toronto ON Canada, 2000-AUG-09.

Awakening involves experiences of:

Awakening involves experiences of:

a deep-seated sense of meaning and purpose in life

a sense of belonging

a sense of connection of 'the deeply personal with the universal'

acceptance, integration and a sense of wholeness.

These experiences are part of being human - they are as clearly present in people with a learning disability as they are in anybody else.

Awakening often becomes more important in times of distress, emotional stress, physical and mental illness, loss, bereavement and the approach of death.

All health care tries to relieve pain and to cure - but good health care tries to do more. Awakening emphasises the healing of the person, not just the disease. It views life as a journey, where good and bad experiences can help you to learn, develop and mature.

International Museum of Spiritual Investigations.

Located at 231 Baltimore St. in a 185-year-old house that survived the three-day Civil War battle, the museum opened in early March.

"About 10 years ago, Chris and I started coming here annually to research paranormal activity," said Williams, who moved to Gettysburg from New Jersey five years ago. "About a year ago, we decided to create a place to gather in all this evidence, so we decided to start a museum."

Small but growing, the museum features three rooms displaying photos, videos and even ghostly voices.

The United States Room focuses on sightings and people who have played a prominent role in spiritualism in America. Included is the story of the spiritualist community of Lily Dale, N.Y., which formed in the mid-19th century. It also features the story of William Mumler, whose camera work, Williams said, was "pretty much the birth of spiritual photography."

Accused of being a fraud by no one less than showman P.T. Barnum (Mumler was tried and acquitted), his work became world-famous. Of special note was his portrait of Mary Todd Lincoln, seated, with the ghostly figure of her slain husband touching her shoulder.

Among other works in this room is a recent photo by a Civil War re-enactor taken without flash on Seminary Ridge. The picture shows apparitions, one appearing to wear a Civil War hat, or kepi, walking through the darkness.

"They counted 14 soldiers crossing the field on Seminary Ridge," Williams said. "It's just one of many unexplained photos."

The International Room showcases mysterious incidents from around the world, including what might be the most well-regarded ghost photo ever taken, that of the "Brown Lady" descending a staircase at Raynham Hall in England in September 1936.

There also is a photo of the Ghost Club, founded in London in 1862, which included such notable members as Charles Dickens, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Harry Houdini.

Williams said he is always looking for more paranormal information, whether it's in the form of video, audio or photo, or of weather-related or electromagnetic phenomena.

"Any investigator or any ghost enthusiasts who have collected evidence can come in and donate whatever they can," Williams said.

In the short time the museum has been open, Williams said, he has received one or two pieces of evidence per day.

Williams has had many strange experiences during his 13 years of looking into ghostly doings, including several encounters in the museum itself. He and the others have caught fleeting glimpses of figures and heard voices and footsteps.

"We've had our share of sightings," he said. "Visuals, audio and our names called out, to being touched and tugged."

When you are saying that you are happy and you are not, there will be a disturbance in your breathing.

"The body has its own way of knowing, a knowing that has little to do with logic, and much to do with truth, little to do with control, and much to do with acceptance, little to do with division and analysis, and much to do with union."

-- Marilyn Sewell

"When you are saying that you are happy and you are not, there will be a disturbance in your breathing. Your breathing cannot be natural. It is impossible."
 -- Osho

"Our inner guidance comes to us through our feelings and body wisdom first -- not through intellectual understanding. ...The intellect works best in service to our intuition, our inner guidance, soul, God or higher power -- whichever term we choose for the spiritual energy that animates life."

 -- Christiane Northrup

What is love? "When mystics use the word love, they use it very carefully

What is love?

 "When mystics use the word love, they use it very carefully -- in the deeply spiritual sense, where to love is to know; to love is to act. If you really love, from the depths of your Consciousness, that love gives you a native wisdom. You perceive the needs of others intuitively and clearly, with detachment from any personal desires; and you know how to act creatively to meet those needs, dexterously surmounting any obstacle that comes in the way. Such is the immense, driving power of love." -- Eknath Easwaran 

 "Therefore, when I say that ‘I love,’ it is not I who love, but in reality Love who acts through me. Love is not so much something I do as something that I am. Love is not a doing but a state of being - a relatedness, a connectedness to another mortal, an identification with her or him that simply flows within me and through me, independent of my intentions or my efforts." -- Robert A. Johnson 

 

"When you are aware that you are the force that is Life, anything is possible. Miracles happen all the time, because those miracles are performed by the heart. The heart is in direct communion with the human soul, and when the heart speaks, even with the resistance of the head, something inside you changes; your heart opens another heart, and true love is possible." -- Don Miguel Ruiz