Was Einstein Wrong?

Scientists at CERN say they have recorded subatomic particles travelling faster than the speed of light, a feat that Einstein said was impossible.

If the findings are proven to be accurate, they would overturn one of the pillars of the "Standard Model" of physics, which explains the way the universe and everything within it works.

Einstein's theory of special relativity, proposed in 1905, states that nothing in the universe can travel faster than the speed of light in a vacuum.

But researchers at the CERN lab near Geneva claim they have recorded neutrinos, a type of tiny particle, travelling faster than the barrier of 186,282 miles (299,792 kilometres) per second.

Proof that something had travelled faster would pose major questions about our understanding of the laws of nature because, for example, something that travels faster than light would in theory arrive before it left.

Speed of light 'broken' by scientists