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Nature 418, 34-35 (4 July 2002) | doi:10.1038/418034a
Relativity: Special treatment
Giovanni Amelino-Camelia
Abstract
The detection of cosmic rays with unexpectedly high energies has prompted a rethink of Einstein's theory of special relativity. A new formulation, called 'doubly special relativity', might be the answer.
At the turn of the twentieth century, the theory of space and time that had originated with Galileo and Newton was abandoned — it was incompatible with the mathematical structure of Maxwell's equations for electromagnetism and in conflict with the results of the Michelson–Morley experiments that had disproved the existence of the aether. Galileo–Newton theory was superseded by Einstein's theory of special relativity, but, after a century of success, that too is now being questioned.
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