the speed of light is widely held to be the universe 's ultimate speed limit , and much of modern physics - as laid out in part by albert einstein in his theory of special relativity - depends on the idea that nothing can exceed it .
by adrian cho , sciencenow if it ’s true .
scientists at cern , the world 's largest ... ( associated press ) file photo shows famed physicist albert einstein .
that 's something that according to einstein 's 1905 special theory of image caption enormous underground detectors are needed to catch neutrinos , that are so elusive as to be dubbed " ghost particles " a meeting at cern , the world 's largest physics lab , has addressed results that suggest subatomic particles have gone faster than the speed of light .
antonio ereditato added " words of caution " to his cern presentation because of the " potentially great impact on physics " of the result .
we want to be helped by the community in understanding our crazy result - because it is crazy antonio ereditato , opera collaboration light speed : flying
if so , the observation would wreck einstein ’s theory of special relativity , which demands that nothing can travel faster than light .
lurking in italy ’s subterranean gran sasso national laboratory , opera detects neutrinos that are fired through the earth from the european particle physics laboratory , a pillar of physics _ that nothing can determine if the approach contains any mistakes .
if it does not , one of the pillars of modern science may come tumbling down .