Who would have thought that an ex-cop from Los Angeles could have started, arguably, the most influential sci-fi franchise of all time. So much so that much of the 'fiction' of Star Trek has inspired scientists and gone on to create science fact. Examples: handheld communication devices, tiny cards holding the entire contents of an encyclopaedia, hand-held 'pads' that you can write on and carry about like a book...the list goes on and on. Most recently, Nasa has pretty much conceived 'Impulse' drive by activating hydrogen fuel with fission reactors which has already improved fuel burn by 200%.
But the big daddy of them all (no, not transporters) has moved one step closer - at least, in theory. You may or may not have heard something about neutrinos emitted from the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) arriving at a sensor placed over 450 miles away a bit earlier than expected. In essence, the world has long believed that nothing can travel faster than the speed of light as per Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity.
E=MC² is one of the unbreakable rules of our universe. It is Mother Nature's recipe for existence and the physical nature of our galaxy and all those beyond. This was thought to be the rule for everything and scientists were happy with that because the theory works without fail.
Except...it's failed.
...and this time, beyond a reasonable doubt.
According to this article, a second test has concluded that neutrinos have indeed travelled While this has scientists worldwide scratching their collective heads, it means that it's looking quite likely that E=MC² ain't all it's cracked up to be...or at least, only to a point. Read further here and you will learn that those pesky neutrinos beat the speed of light by about 6 metres/second. That might not sound like a big deal but in the world of physics, it's the equivalent of busting into the final episode of 'America's Top Model' and ripping off Tyra Bank's outfit to reveal secret male genitalia.
This new science is both baffling and exciting because it indicates that the entire concept of Warp speed is actually possible and is now scientifically proven. While this does not mean that there's any danger of a physicist launching your Granny to Alpha Centauri at 'Warp Factor 5' any time soon, it has unlocked a crucial door to understanding how we might achieve it some day. (With someone else's Granny, of course.)
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