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From two Physicists at UK (University of Koblenz, at Koblenz, Germany: "one of the youngest universities in Germany") comes some startling stuff, indeed.

"Light seems to defy its own speed limit"

IT'S a speed record that is supposed to be impossible to break. Yet two physicists are now claiming they have propelled photons faster than the speed of light. This would be in direct violation of a key tenet of Einstein's special theory of relativity that states that nothing, under any circumstance, can exceed the speed of light.

Now, as you recall from your physics studies, the constant c is important to much of our understanding of physics, and isn't supposed to change...a constant has to be constant.

Are these two physicists (claiming to 'tunnel' photons 'instantaneously' across barriers)...

"...frustrated total internal reflection at double prisms..."

...really going to startle the scientific community, or become the latest couple of laughingstocks (remember 'cold fusion') of physics forums fame?

We'll have to wait, and see if these experiments can be duplicated in another lab. Chill, folks, this isn't Global Warming, where politics can make follow up experiments moot, and turn questioners and skeptics into dullards at AlGore's request. At best, this is a bit of esoterica that will be bandied about and disproven soon enough.

Don't expect any 'beam me up, Scottie' technology from this, anytime soon...sorry, Al won't be going anywhere on dilithium crystals, or cold fusion or even tunneling photons just yet!

Ahhhh, but we could only hope...

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