Unfortunately, sensationalists articles that are completely baloney appear
in most scientific journals from time to time.
Nature published an article claiming that if the fine structure conswtant is
changing, as suggested by some astronomical observations, then this change
must be due to a change in the speed of light. Now, this must be nonsense,
because the value of the speed of light, being a dimensional constant, is
determined by our choice of units. In fact, that there are dimensional
constants at all, is an artefact of using inconsistent units at the same
time.
Michael Duff has explained this in the articles:
http://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/0208093
and:
http://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0110060
----- Oorspronkelijk bericht -----
Van: "Nicole Barberis" <nbarberis.domain.name.hidden>
Aan: <Fabric-of-Reality.domain.name.hidden>
Verzonden: Friday, July 30, 2004 06:15 PM
Onderwerp: Afshar and "...the idea of a photon is dead"
> I was stunned to read "Quantum Rebel" in July 24th's
> New Scientist. Shahriar Afshar, an American, comes to
> the conclusion that "we have no other choice but to
> declare the idea of Einstein's photon dead" (page 35).
> His work has been tested and is now being peer
> reviewed. How trustworthy is New Scientist as a news
> source? Is it prone to sensationalists articles. I'm
> a fairly new reader of this magazine, but it seemed to
> me to be a good source of science news until last
> week's rushed Hawking article and this week's
> no-such-thing-as-a-photon showcase article. Of
> course, if it is repeatedly proved true than I would
> welcome the new finding but for now I'm just a bit
> stunned by the news.
>
> -Nicole
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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Received on Sun Aug 01 2004 - 08:10:15 PDT