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Nature 416, 803-804 (25 April 2002) | doi:10.1038/416803a
Relativity: Testing times in space
Steve K. Lamoreaux
Abstract
We take for granted that physical 'constants', such as the speed of light, are fixed values. But they might not be, and experiments in space may allow us to investigate this possibility.
A basic assumption of Einstein's theory of relativity is that the fundamental physical laws and parameters do not depend on the position, orientation or uniform velocity of the laboratory in which they are measured — a property generally known as Lorentz invariance. Relativity has been tested, implicitly and explicitly, in countless experiments; as yet, no failure of the theory has been observed.
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