Ooh!

[hummingwolf]

Light as we know it may be a direct result of small violations of relativity, according to new research scheduled for publication online Tuesday (March 22) in the journal Physical Review D.

In discussing the work, physics professor Alan Kostelecky of Indiana University described light as "a shimmering of ever-present vectors in empty space" and compared it to waves propagating across a field of grain. This description is markedly different from existing theories of light, in which scientists believe space is without direction and the properties of light are a result of an underlying symmetry of nature.

Instead the report, co-authored by Kostelecky with physics professor Robert Bluhm of Colby College, discusses the possibility that light arises from the breaking of a symmetry of relativity. "Nature's beauty is more subtle than perfect symmetry," Kostelecky said. "The underlying origin of light may be another example of this subtlety." (via scienceblog)

Comments

[paradigm-palace.livejournal.com]

Thoughts too deep for The Lori, this evening.

It would be so great being a Physics professor. I envision myself sitting around with a small group of people speaking most excitedly about stuff that "the rest of the world" comprehends with an unspoken question of , "What in the fuck are you talking about?".

:)

[hummingwolf.livejournal.com]

My father was a nuclear physicist who would gleefully talk for hours on ideas presented in both science reporting and science fiction. I don't always understand what scientists are talking about, but I know just enough that something like this will make me giddy. :-)