Changing constant? Only time will tell

摘要

It's time to declare a ceasefire in the fight to find out whether the constants of nature vary. Some observations of how cosmic molecules emit and absorb light at ultraviolet wavelengths have hinted that the fine structure constant, responsible for the strength of electromagnetism, is not the same throughout the universe. But the measurement is tricky, and researchers had hoped that studying radio wavelengths would give a more precise result.