Constant decay rates not really contanst?

[The Straight Story]

When probing the deepest reaches of the Cosmos or magnifying our understanding of the quantum world, a whole host of mysteries present themselves. This is to be expected when pushing our knowledge of the Universe to the limit.

But what if a well-known -- and apparently constant -- characteristic of matter starts behaving mysteriously?

This is exactly what has been noticed in recent years; the decay rates of radioactive elements are changing. This is especially mysterious as we are talking about elements with "constant" decay rates -- these values aren't supposed to change. School textbooks teach us this from an early age.

This is the conclusion that researchers from Stanford and Purdue University have arrived at, but the only explanation they have is even weirder than the phenomenon itself: The sun might be emitting a previously unknown particle that is meddling with the decay rates of matter. Or, at the very least, we are seeing some new physics.

http://news.discovery.com/space/is-the-sun-emitting-a-mystery-particle.html

[Hissyspit]

1. Change is the one true constant.

That seems true on a micro-level, so why not on a macro-level? Constants are probably just tricks of perspective and from our perspective, they seem constant, but probably could be seen as not constant if we could take a different perspective. Or something.

[RaleighNCDUer]

2. Which is why I have serious reservations about faster than light travel

or time travel being impossible. There's no telling when we will learn something totally unexpected that will turn relativity on it's head.

[necso]

3. I remember reading previously

about another fundamental measurement (I believe I have the link somewhere*, but how to search for it escapes me at the moment) that seemed to change with the earth's distance from the sun.

*: I keep lists (in files) of what I think are good links (only a small percentage aren't links to posts here; DU is a somewhat surprisingly good aggregator, and sometimes the comments offer other good links); but these aren't organized by topic... a large job at this point.

[Betsy Ross]

4. An astronomical unit

Distance between earth and sun, approx 93 million miles.