SOME things never change. But now one of science's most cherished constants is being challenged by a controversial young cosmologist and a crack team of Sydney researchers.
According to Albert Einstein's theory of relativity, enunciated a century ago, the speed of light - the "c" in his famous equation e=mc 2 - has been a constant 299,792,458 metres a second since the universe began with the Big Bang. Dr Joao Magueijo thinks Einstein, who did have second thoughts but never pursued them, got it wrong. He believes that not long after the Big Bang light hit a "speed bump" and is, in fact, slowing down.
So, E is not MC2? But then again, didn't Einstein flunk his algebra... Or he should have watched Bikini Calculus!
