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From: Nina Cacciatore
Date: 10/13/2001
Time: 1:23:22 PM
Remote Name: 207.144.212.183
from: THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD THURS., AUG. 16/01 NATIONAL
Electric shock for world of physics
By Richard Macey
According to this article, a team of scientists at NSW University have found evidence that one of the fundamental forces of physics, electromagnetism, has changed since the universe's creation some 14 billion years ago.
This could imply that speed of light may be changing and that other dimensions exist, says Dr John Webb, associate professor astrophysics at the University of NSW.
Studying the images taken by the 10-metre Keck telescope in Hawaii, the team looked at 12 billion-year-old light from quasars and discovered that the light which started travelling one or two billion years after the Big Bang was absorbed in unexpected ways. Professor Webb said the only explanation was that one of the forces of physics responsible for holding atoms together - electromagnetism - must have "evolved" in the past 12 billion years. "Our understanding of physics is based on the laws of physics always being the same. That has been the assumption throughout the last century If we are correct, that tenet is no longer the case", said Dr. Webb.
The discovery created waves in the physics community, being rated "10 on a scale of one to 10" by Nobel Prize winner Dr Sheldon Glashow of Boston University.