QuantumTunnelling

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  • German scientists claim to have broken speed of light

    by 
    Darren Murph
    Darren Murph
    08.16.2007

    We're almost terrified to hear what the physicists in the crowd have to say about this one, but a duo of German scientists have reportedly broken the speed of light. To do so, the two "set up an experiment in which microwave photons, energetic packets of light, appeared to travel instantaneously between two prisms forming the halves of a cube placed a meter apart." According to them, they were able to force light to overcome its own speed limit by utilizing a "strange phenomenon known as quantum tunneling." Dr. Gunter Nimtz was even quoted as saying that for the time being, it was the "only violation of special relativity that he knew of," and while it does indeed sound (way) too good to be true, we'll step aside and let the experts battle it out.[Via Telegraph, thanks Ian]UPDATE: As predicted, there's a high probability that these claims aren't exactly, shall we say, infallibly correct -- but at least someone's giving it a go, eh?