(Newser)
–
Two German physicists claim to have sent microwave photons zooming past the speed of light , a feat Albert Einstein said would require an infinite—and impossible—amount of energy, reports the Daily Telegraph. "For the time being, this is the only violation of special relativity that I know of," said one of the scientists.
The physicists say they accomplished the feat while experimenting with an occurrence called quantum tunneling in which sub-atomic particles appear to flout the established laws of physics. They caused the photons, or tiny energetic packets of light, to travel instantaneously between a pair of prisms three feet apart at a speed ostensibly faster than light, or 186,000 miles per second.
