{"id":1285,"date":"2011-10-07T15:40:32","date_gmt":"2011-10-07T15:40:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/2011\/10\/07\/jagadish-manrakhan\/"},"modified":"2019-12-15T07:09:13","modified_gmt":"2019-12-15T03:09:13","slug":"jagadish-manrakhan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/jagadish-manrakhan\/","title":{"rendered":"Let There Be Light\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Jagadish Manrakhan<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Knowledge is a light, enriching
\n<\/em><\/strong><\/span>The warmth of life, and all may
\n<\/em><\/strong><\/span>Partake who seek it out \u2026<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

— Kahlil Gibran (1883 \u2013 1931)<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018Let there be Light!\u2019\u00a0 This multi-faceted plea comes out repeatedly in various sacred books \u2013 from for example, The Rig Veda<\/em> (Book I, 113) and the Bhagavad Gita<\/em> (xiii.17); the Bible (Genesis, 1: 3, St. John, 8: 12) and the Dhammapada<\/em>, along with other Buddhist texts.<\/span><\/p>\n

And now comes an urgent appeal from that famed shrine of Science at Geneva, the Conseil Europ\u00e9en pour la Recherche Nucl\u00e9aire<\/em>, CERN, to replicate its possible finding, to the effect that subatomic particles may be exceeding the speed of light \u2013 strictly in line with a very high-minded, time-honoured and responsible scientific tradition.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018So what?\u2019 you might ask.\u00a0 And the answer could well be \u2018So, plenty!\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

To start with, nothing is supposed to exceed the speed of light, according, that is to The Theory of Special Relativity,<\/strong> enunciated by Albert Einstein in 1905.\u00a0 (The latter later earned the 1921 Physics Nobel for elucidating the quantum nature of light).<\/span><\/p>\n

Moreover, the quantity of matter a body contains i.e. its mass (m), and its energy content (E) are inter-convertible, through the formula of E = Mc2<\/sup>, where c is the velocity of light \u2013 the famous equation that was demonstrated at Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and on various subsequent test sites.<\/span><\/p>\n

Indeed, moving a body beyond the speed of light may substantially increase its mass, enough to halt that very increase!<\/span><\/p>\n

In reverse not so long ago, we were being inflicted with \u2018slower-than-normal\u2019 light, then labelled as the \u2018tired-light\u2019 hypothesis!<\/span><\/p>\n

There are other features of Einstein\u2019s General Theory of Relativity<\/strong> (1916) which underlie much of modern cosmology, and which concern \u2018time-space\u2019 and its curvature, mass and gravitation, and deflection of light, besides other factors which may aggravate the implications of faster-than-light movement.\u00a0 Among those are: first, the Standard Model of Particle Physics<\/strong>, which has been in acceptance for several years may now have to be abandoned and replaced by another model yet to be elaborated.\u00a0 Second, we appear to have a massive shortfall in mass (and energy) to keep our present Universe on an even keel, so to speak.<\/span><\/p>\n

In brief, the Universe is expanding ever faster due to \u2018dark\u2019 matter, a discovery signally heralded by the 2011 Physics\u2019 Nobel Prize.\u00a0 Third, we believe that existing \u2018black holes\u2019 may lead to \u2018new universes\u2019 with slightly different \u2018laws of science and constants\u2019 \u2013 so where is the ever elusive ‘Theory of Everything’ or \u2018ultimate Truth\u2019?<\/span><\/p>\n

And finally, will Time reverse itself?\u00a0 So we are \u2018all sucked back into the past \u2013 from \u2018grave to womb\u2019?\u00a0 For that might yet be a logical outcome of faster-than-light: what a thought!<\/span><\/p>\n

A la recherche du temps perdu (<\/em>Marcel Proust; <\/em>1871 \u2013 1922)?<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, if you are an adept of TV, ITC, smart phones, and microwave ovens, please pay attention.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

* Published in print edition on 7 October 2011<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Jagadish Manrakhan<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":288,"featured_media":6560,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3377],"tags":[20960,1036,2391,20958,20957,16356,20474,20959],"class_list":["post-1285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science-technology","tag-1921-physics-nobel","tag-albert-einstein","tag-bhagavad-gita","tag-conseil-europeen-pour-la-recherche-nucleaire","tag-dhammapada","tag-jagadish-manrakhan","tag-standard-model-of-particle-physics","tag-theory-of-special-relativity"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/MT-Logokk.jpg?fit=1200%2C880&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8QzSF-kJ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/288"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1285"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1285\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}