Space: the final frontier.
As physicists continue to wrestle with the mysteries of the universe, there was one rule at least that seemed inviolable: Einstein's theory that nothing could beat the speed of light.
Today scientists in Geneva however are unveiling a stunning piece of research that could disprove this law - and shake up our entire comprehension of time and space.
They measured the time it took neutrinos - a type of sub atomic particle - to travel the 730km distance from Geneva to a sister lab in Italy.
To their astonishment, they discovered out that the neutrinos seemed to have been recorded travelling 60 nanoseconds, or a billionth of a second, faster than light.
Researcher and particle physicist Dario Autiero was part of the team.
(SOUNDBITE) (French) CNRS RESEARCHER AND PARTICLE PHYSICIST, DARIO AUTIERO SAYING:
"It is the first time that we have experimental evidence of a particle travelling faster than light, which is completely unexpected in physics as we know it."
Neutrinos are mysterious sub-atomic particles which can pass undetected through matter, including the human body.
The most common particle in the universe, they originate from the sun, and radioactive disintegration.
More than a century after Einstein presented his special theory of relativity, this discovery - if accurate - could revolutionise modern-day physics.
Sunita Rappai, Reuters
