Take that, Einstein.

 First use of a hydrogen bubble chamber to
detect neutrinos, November 13, 1970

Today, the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), the largest physics lab in the world,  claimed to have clocked a subatomic particle that travels faster than the speed of light.

If we all remember high school physics, Einstein's 1905 special theory of relativity -- E = mc² -- Where E is energy, m is mass and c represents the speed of light) -- stated that nothing travels faster than the speed of light. It boils down to if an object is traveling really fast (say, near the speed of light), it cannot go faster, regardless of how much energy it absorbes or how much its momentum increases. And for the past 106 years it's remained unquestioned. If verified, this could be huge. Like, fundamental-laws-of-nature-changing huge.

CERN measured a neutrino beam (an electrically neutral weakly interacting elementary subatomic particle) that traveled from a particle accelerator in Geneva to another lab 454 miles aways in Italy 60 nanoseconds faster than the speed of light.

The European lab is asking others to replicate their test just so they can be sure, Chicago-based Fermilab is the first to take up the challenge, and I can't wait to see what they come up with.

Source: Lab Claims Faster-Than-Light-Particle -- AP Press

All photos via Wikimedia Commons