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Show The Salt Lake Tribune NATION/WORLD im 2 DAYS ON Thursday,July 20, 2000 ' ONE DAY SALE & PREVIEW DAY 7995 SCOOTERS Researchers Break Light Speed Limit FRIDAY & SATURDAY ONLY! Laserexits tube beforeit finishes entering;finding could upsetrelativity physics THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Scientists have apparently broken the universe’s speed limit. Forgenerations, physicists believed there is noth- ing faster than light moving through a vacuum — a speed of 186,000 miles per second. Butin an experimentin Princeton, N.J., physicists sent a pulse of laser light through cesium vapor so quickly thatit left the chamberbefore it had evenfinished entering. Chiao, a physicist at the University of California at Berkeley who was notinvolved in the work. Chiao has performed similar experiments using electricfields. In the latest experiment, researchers at NEC ¢eveloped a device that fired a laser pulse into a glass chamber filled with a vapor of cesium atoms. There- | _ THE VIPER&.QUICK-KICK SCOOTERS ON SAL’ FOR A LIMITED TIME! searchers say the device is sort ofa light amplifier that can push the pulse ahead. The Princeton experimentand others likeit test the limits of the theory of relativity that Albert Einstein | developed nearly a century ago. The pulse traveled 310 times the distance it would According to the special theory ofrelativity, the have covered if the chamber hadcontained a vacuum. speed of particles of light in a vacuum, such as outer Researchers say it is the most convincing demon- space, is the only absolute measurementin the unistration yet that the speed of light — supposedly an verse. The speed ofeverything else — rockets or inchironclad rule ofnature —can be pushed beyond known _ worms—isrelative totheobserver, Einsteinand othboundaries, at least under certain laboratory ers explained. circumstances. In everyday circumstances, an object cannottravel “This effect cannot be used to send information faster than light. backin time,” said Lijun Wang, a researcher with the ThePrinceton experiment andothers change these private NECInstitute.“However,our experiment does circumstances by using devices such as the cesium show that the generally held misconception that chamberrather than a vacuum. ‘nothing can travel faster than the speed oflight’ is wrong.” Theresults were published in today’s issue of the journal Nature, The achievementhas nopractical application right now,but experiments like this have generated considerable excitement in the small international community of theoretical and optical physicists. “This is a breakthrough in the sense that people have thought that was impossible,” said Raymond Translucent color wheels. Folds for easy storage and travel, weighs only 6 ure | Foam-grip handle bar, non-:=se surface: Reg. 99.95. ORDER ANYTIME: TOLL FREE 1-800-452-6323. | The Razor scooter notincluded in se ieactpce: Measoma"ohuae at as “only” will remain in etfect event Abverised rchanienan be offered again in upcoming sale events. Not everyone is convinced the NECscientists did whatthey claim. Aephraim Steinberg, a physicist at the University | of Toronto, said the light particles coming out of the cesium chamber maynothave beenthe sameonesthat entered, so he questions whetherthe speed of light was broken. Still, the work is important, he said: “The interesting thing is how did they manageto producelight that looks exactly like something that didn't get there yet?” U.S. Bank to Loan $1 Billion for AIDS Drugs in Africa ‘THE ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON — The US. government's export-finance agency said Wednesdayit will provide $1 billion a year in loans to help 24 sub-Sahara African nations buy AIDS drugs, medical equipment and health services from Americanbusinesses. James Harmon,presidentofthe U.S. Export-Import Bank said he believed export-finance agencies in Europe and Japan would help their pharmaceutical companies join the initiative so that billions more would be provided to fight AIDS and the HIV virus that causesit. Seventy percent. of the world’s statistics — for Africa and for the world,” Harmonsaid in announcing the five-year pilot project. “This crisis . poses a clear and present danger to global economic health and stability,” he said. “We need to make clear with our actions, not just our words, that the global community has whatit takes to help Africa win this war.” The United Nations estimates the spending for treatment and prevention of HIV/AIDS needs to needed. ‘These are frightening cost $2,000 a year for an African patient, more than four times the average incomein many nations. Jeffrey Sturchio, a spokesman for Merck & Co of Whitehouse Station, N.J., one of the companies involved,said the bank’sinitiative drugs to fight AIDS. Koomson, who served on a subSahara advisory panelat the bank, said a crucial part ofthe effort to fight AIDSis the cost of the drugs nearly all the 11 million AIDSorphanslive there, prices they charge African nations for drugs to. combat AIDS. But even a discounted “cocktail” of AIDS-suppressing drugs might would help African countries ob- eight more people infected every died in the region last year and panies agreed in May to cut the progressin prevention and care. Ghanian Ambassador Koby 34 million people infected with HIV live in sub-Sahara Africa with minute. More than 2 million people Koomsonsaid. Five multinational drug com- rise tenfold to $3 billion a year if the hardest-hit nations are to make “Tt is my hope that the pharmaceutical companies represented here will look at ways to make these products even more affordable to the people of Africa,” tain additional resources to get But he called that effort only “onepiece of a complex puzzle. An equally importantpieceis finding sustainable financing for public health programs,” hesaid. Z(M\ _ sortium in South Africa, Morna Cornell, said the deal appears to follow the U.S. government's pattern oftrying to protect its pharmaceutical companies’ business. A DIVISION OF MAY DEPARTMENT STORES OP ALL STORES THURSDAY easyspirit 10 AM-9 PM* EASYIT SUMMER SAL ONLY HAPPENS ONCEA YEAR THE SHOES THAT NEVER GO ON SALE ARE ON SALE NOW ONLY 49.99 YOUR CHOICE SALE 49.99 MOTION ONLY 49.99 Wheat, white, navy, black. Reg. 73.95. White, black. SALE 49.99 TREASURE Black, navy, buttermilk lion. Reg. 68.95. CONQUER i, SALE 54.99 SALE 59.99 ERACE > ay, White. Reg 78.95 ERUPT White,black. Reg. 68,95. << API White, black, sand doe. Reg. 68.95. <a *Foothil 10 am-6 pm. Regular CHARGEIT WITH ZCMI. 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