Everybody Knows That!
The Wall Street Journal reports in “ Physicists wary of junking light speed limit yet ” that “Everybody knows that the speed limit is c, the speed of light …”
Leaving aside the fact that not everybody knows that, or that the original declaration was that the fastest speed that could be achieved was the speed of light In A Vacumn, I am left with wondering what the Wall Street Journal would have said a hundred years ago, when Einstein declared the limit.
Presumably something along the lines of “Everybody knows that there is no upper limit to how fast we can go. I mean, we all thought horses were fast, but look at trains, cars, and perhaps soon, aeroplanes …”.
Amazing!
That science discovers new truths is not news.
That science has discovered a new truth IS news, and I’m glad to learn of it.
But today’s common knowledge is by definition tomorrow’s scientific non-truth, as science continues to push back the darkness.
