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Faster Than the Speed of Light: The Story of a Scientific Speculation
Faster Than the Speed of Light The Story of a Scientific Speculation Author:Joao Magueijo, Joao Magueijo Destined to be one of the most hotly debated books of the year-the fascinating story of how one brilliant young physicist's heretical idea may dethrone Einstein and forever change the way we see the universe. Say the word "light" in the context of physics, and most of us repeat the mantra: Nothing travels faster than the speed of light. Indeed,... more » nothing does. But light is thought to have another amazing property, which Einstein enshrined in his Theory of Special Relativity: light travels at one speed and one speed only-it is one of nature's constants. This idea is considered sacred. It's one of the foundations of modern physics. But what if it's wrong? In Faster Than the Speed of Light, Cambridge University-trained theoretical physicist João Magueijo puts forth an extraordinary speculation: light traveled faster in the early universe than it does today. Why would anyone in his early thirties, with every sign of a golden career ahead of him, risk his reputation and scientific standing on a seemingly crazy idea that contradicts Albert Einstein? As Magueijo shows in this masterful book, his theory of the varying speed of light (VSL) solves some of the most intractable problems in cosmology-specifically the flatness problem, the horizon problem, and the energy of space itself. In addition, the VSL theory could have truly marvelous implications for faster space travel, black holes, time dilation, and string theory. The story of one man's quest to decipher the true nature of the universe, Faster Than the Speed of Light provides the first real glimpse of twenty-first-century physics-and promises stranger things to come.« less