Time and the speed of light

[freethinker]

Read yesterday a 'science news' story about 'virtual' photons, bits of matter/energy (maybe the same thing) that come into existence, and are immediately annihilated - annihilated so quickly that the actuality of their existence was in question. Scientists (by a method irrelevant to this post) managed to speed up the local environment for this phenomenon to 5% of the speed of light. The new virtual photons thus appeared to the observers to remain in existence long enough for their emissions to be detected.

If you bend your mind around this experiment for awhile, you may arrive at the tentative conclusion that time 'flows' (for lack of a better term) at the speed of light. If you chew on that for awhile, well, some things can get dicey.

I vaguely - maybe recall that this 'velocity of time' conclusion doesn't really describe the situation, but the explanation must have gone over my head, because it didn't stick.

[popee]

I am quite fascinated by the quantum world, unfortunately I don't posses any of the requisite math and physics knowledge, so its just a curiosity for me. I read once that if one atom was enlarged to the size of a cathedral .. then the nucleus (the solid part) would only be the size of a fruit fly ... and the remainder is just empty space.

Or that a photon can travel right through our bodies ... and not hit a thing.

And I'm one of those whacky non-dualist types, so I'm kind of more interested in the emptiness .. than the solidity. lol


nice to meet you freethinker