I don't know anything about Afshar, but I do know that
variable-speed-of-light (VSL) theories of quantum gravity are now being
considered seriously by physics journals and by some leading physicists.
Joao Maguiejo (sp?) has a popular book on the topic entitled "Faster than
the Speed of Light." The first half of the book will be too elementary for
members of this list, but the second half is a good read -- though it leaves
one eager for the mathematical details, which are found in the author's and
others' technical papers.
Lee Smolin, who is well-respected for his role in creating loop quantum
gravity, is now taking VSL theories seriously.
-- Ben Goertzel
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Saibal Mitra [mailto:smitra.domain.name.hidden]
> Sent: Sunday, August 01, 2004 8:03 AM
> To: Fabric-of-Reality.domain.name.hidden
> Cc: everything; nbarberis.domain.name.hidden
> Subject: Re: Afshar and "...the idea of a photon is dead"
>
>
> 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 - 13:01:17 PDT