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One of the most cherished principles in science – the constancy of physics – may not be true, according to research carried out at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), Swinburne University of Technology and the University of Cambridge.
The study found that one of the four known fundamental forces, electromagnetism – measured by the so-called fine-structure constant and denoted by the symbol ‘alpha' – seems to vary across the Universe.
The first hints that alpha might not be constant came a decade ago when Professor John Webb, Professor Victor Flambaum, and other colleagues at UNSW and elsewhere, analysed observations from the Keck Observatory, in Hawaii. Those observations were restricted to one broad area in the sky.
However, now Webb and colleagues (PhD graduate Dr Julian King, PhD student Matthew Bainbridge and Professor Victor Flambaum at UNSW; Dr Michael Murphy at Swinburne University of Technology, and Professor Bob Carswell from Cambridge University) have doubled the number of observations and measured the value of alpha in about 300 distant galaxies, all at huge distances from Earth, and over a much wider area of the sky. The new observations were obtained using the European Southern Observatory's ‘Very Large Telescope' in Chile.
"The results astonished us," said Professor Webb. "In one direction – from our location in the Universe – alpha gets gradually weaker, yet in the opposite direction it gets gradually stronger."
"The discovery, if confirmed, has profound implications for our understanding of space and time and violates one of the fundamental principles underlying Einstein's General Relativity theory," Dr King added.
"Such violations are actually expected in some more modern ‘Theories of Everything' that try to unify all the known fundamental forces," said Professor Flambaum. "The smooth continuous change in alpha may also imply the Universe is much larger than our observable part of it, possibly infinite."
"Another currently popular idea is that many universes exist, each having its own set of physical laws," Dr Murphy said. "Even a slight change in the laws of Nature means they weren't ‘set in stone' when our Universe was born. The laws of Nature you see may depend on your ‘space-time address' – when and where you happen to live in the Universe."
Professor Webb said these new findings also offer a very natural explanation for a question that puzzled scientists for decades: why do the laws of physics seem to be so finely-tuned for the existence of life?
"The answer may be that other regions of the Universe are not quite so favourable for life as we know it, and that the laws of physics we measure in our part of the Universe are merely ‘local by-laws', in which case it is no particular surprise to find life here," he said.
Contacts and sources:
John Webb
Julian King
Michael Murphy
Victor Flambaum
UNSW Faculty of Science Media Liaison, Bob Beale
Swinburne Media Liaison, Lea Kivivali
Images & videos
http://www.phys.unsw.edu.au/~jkw/alphadipole_media/alphadipole_media/Links.html
http://www.astronomy.swin.edu.au/~mmurphy/res.html
Links:
John Webb: www.phys.unsw.edu.au/STAFF/ACADEMIC/webb.html
UNSW Department of Astrophysics and Optics: http://www.phys.unsw.edu.au/astro/
Michael Murphy: http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/~mmurphySwinburne Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing: http://astronomy.swin.edu.au
Read more at Nano Patents and Innovations
A segment copied from the book: ZTINGAR. (You can get it on Amazon)
During his life, Ztingar has heard God given many names and even all sorts of super–human qualities, but he’s never actually read any detailed written descriptions of God in the scriptures. No sooner does this thought enter his mind than the bright light reappears with several golden words beaming out from it that say…
In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Ztingar has been instantly captivated by the sentence ‘In the beginning the word already existed’. His eyes narrow as he concentrates deeply, trying hard to work out what this profound, insightful and intriguing quotation is actually saying. But after several moments of deliberating, the only explanation he can come up with is that a word (or words) appears to be the likely fundamental underlying representation of the meaning of God and of all existence. Some of the other words representing the Almighty that Ztingar has ever heard mentioned have included names such as Elohim, Jehovah, Yahweh, Adonai and Allah. He wonders whether the phrase Nam–myoho–renge–kyo could be another representation of the same.
Next to appear is a description of God, according to Paul the Apostle…
Through everything that God has made we can clearly see His invisible qualities, eternal power and divine nature. And we know that God causes everything to work together.
Ztingar feels as though he’s just been struck by a massive thunderbolt. The amazingly strong similarity to Gang–Gang’s description of Life’s Mystic Law is glaringly obvious to him. He immediately interprets ‘invisible qualities’ as being equal to ‘mystic’——‘eternal power’ as the thread of Life Force or
‘kyo’——‘divine nature’ as the Law of Nature or ‘myoho’, and ‘causes everything to work together’ as the Law of Cause and Effect or ‘renge’. It’s an almost mirror–perfect description of Life’s Mystic Law and as far as Ztingar’s concerned the correlation is unmistakable.
The words all change and he continues to read more…
Although we presently see things imperfectly, as in a cloudy mirror, we’re capable of seeing everything with perfect clarity and knowing everything completely as God knows us.
Again Ztingar is awestruck and sees this description as being almost identical to what Gang–Gang taught about one’s present state of limited knowledge in comparison to reaching one’s Enlightenment. It has also allowed Ztingar to clearly see that, just like Gang–Gang had explained to the animals, the true identity and meaning of Buddha and God is essentially the same. In fact, the only differences that he’s able to distinguish between the two are the many variations and interpretations that have been created by humankind and handed down throughout the ages. He thinks that some are so perverted from the real truth that they promote hatred and prejudice instead of compassion and love, as well as cause some people to be deceitful and make premature, cruel and often unjust judgements upon each other. Even worse than that, many of the interpretations motivate some people to kill and destroy one another.“How the hell can so many people be so goddamned narrow–minded ‘n’ dumb?” Ztingar asks himself, realising at the same time that he’s been equally as foolish for doing it as anyone else——probably even more so.
He pauses for a moment to contemplate what he knows about the Holy Trinity——how the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost or Spirit is a combination of three different entities, but is all the same one God. From what he can recall, all three are in perfect harmony with each other, co–eternal, co–equal and co–powerful and should any one of them be removed, there would be no God.
Out of curiosity, Ztingar had once surfed the Internet looking for a scientific explanation of the Holy Trinity, but was only ever able to find the usual spiritual interpretations. By comparing it now to the description of Life’s Mystic Law, he believes that he’s finally found an answer that makes a lot of scientific sense.
He sees the Father as being a representation of the Law of Nature, the Son Jesus as representing the Law of Cause and Effect (mainly because Jesus taught that we reap what we sow) and the Holy Ghost or Spirit as the Law of Communication. Another similarity is that if any one of these three laws was removed, the others would no longer be able to exist.
Ztingar feels spiritually elated! It’s just occurred to him that he may have discovered something with the potential to affect millions of people’s lives around the world. He’s trying to imagine how Christopher Columbus would have felt when he discovered the ‘New World’ or Isaac Newton when he recognised the Law of Gravity. “They couldn’t have felt any better than I do right now!” he tells himself excitedly.
Everything Ztingar has ever been told about the meaning of God and the Holy Trinity in the past is now comparatively primitive to him and he’s curious to know if anyone else has ever figured this similarity out. Ztingar’s by no means a devout believer, but even if he was and thought that adhering to Life’s Mystic Law meant turning his back on God, knowing about this would certainly set him straight.
The written words have all faded with the light and the mysterious female voice is speaking again…
Put your faith in the Law and not the person, for all that which exists is connected through the invisible bonds of Life’s Mystic Law.
Complete and utter BS.
Physics “Laws” are never really know. What we do is try and explain what we think is happening. In doing so we device formulas which may or not correct. If it seems that “the laws of physics” are different. Then it means that the variables are incomplete.
Until you know all the variables of a formula, the only thing you have is an approximation to the formula. Since we have not created the laws of the universe. And no one have left us a manual, we will never be sure that the formula we think are right are in fact righ, or just approximations.