The other set-up in Unnikrishnan's lab was an apparatus for measuring the speed of light, something that has been done countless times before. However, during a couple of evenings spent with Unni, I came to realise it was part of a quite radical program of research (see sidebar for context). He has experimental evidence backed up by theory, showing that the speed of light is only constant within the frame of reference provided by the mass of the entire Universe. This means the movement of an observer does affect the result of measurement, when done in a way that is not self-cancelling.
He is calling this theory Cosmic Relativity, and it will force some major revisions in other areas of physics. The problem is that, a century after Einstein, Special Relativity has acquired the status of a religious belief. To question Einstein is heresy, and a scientist doing so has to tread very carefully indeed.
I find Unni’s ideas exciting and profoundly significant, and in a way that I can respond to as an artist. It’s the rebirth, in another form, of the aether, that elusive 19th century medium of propagation for light. It restores an underlying reality to the Universe and a coherence to our individual experiences. Light, in its plenitude of rational and spiritual meaning, becomes once again part of tangible kinematics, rather than an abstract anomaly.
