Lacunae in the philosophical foundations of special relativity<\/a>\u2019. With Debono listed as its sole author, the paper features in the 2025 edition of Open Astronomy.<\/p>\nIt makes a bold claim: that Einstein\u2019s Special Theory of\u00a0Relativity is based on some philosophical inconsistencies.<\/p>\n
Debono is keenly aware\u00a0that he\u2019s treading unfamiliar ground, and his paper\u2019s conclusions make that clear.<\/p>\n
Gone is the brash, confident tone that characterises Debono\u2019s political missives and legal arguments. Instead, he\u00a0acknowledges that it is \u201chighly probable\u201d that his conclusions \u201care not precise, if not outright incorrect\u201d. However, he adds, \u201cthe questions are probably the right ones\u201d.<\/p>\n
Einstein\u2019s 1905 theory is built on ideas stretching back to Galileo Galilei and others: that the outcome of physical experiments do not change just because you are moving.<\/p>\n
Galileo argued that a person in a windowless ship cabin could not tell if the ship was moving or stationary, because a dropped ball would fall straight down, just as it would on land. Einstein took this logic a step further, applying it not just to falling balls, but also to light, whose velocity is always a constant.<\/p>\n
Debono\u2019s paper sees a logical \u201cgap\u201d here. Light and solid objects are fundamentally different and Einstein may have been too quick to assume the same rules apply to both, he argues. In short, Debono is questioning the very foundation of how we measure time and space.<\/p>\n
Associate professor Jackson Levi Said, who is thanked in Debono\u2019s paper for offering guidance and feedback, said the paper \u201craises interesting questions on the foundations of\u00a0relativity theory\u201d.<\/p>\n
Said told Times of Malta that he and Debono had discussed the subject over coffee several times over the past years, having first met after the lawyer reached out.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s absolutely his work,\u201d he said, when asked how involved he was in drafting the paper.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just offered guidance. It can be hard to find people to discuss these sorts of things with.\u201d<\/p>\n
And Dr Rebecca Briffa, an\u00a0astronomy researcher, told Times of Malta the paper had value.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is crucial that we think deeply about the universe, not only to uncover its physical laws, but to enrich our sense of place within it and to deepen humanity\u2019s exploration of the philosophical foundations of our most profound theories and our understanding of it,\u201d she said. \u201cPapers such as this play a valuable role in encouraging that deeper level of engagement.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018A lack of proper understanding\u2019<\/p>\n
Two others who assessed the paper for Times of Malta were less enthused.<\/p>\n
An academic who declined to be named told Times of Malta that the paper was fundamentally incorrect in its understanding of some key principles and definitions, such as that of \u201csimultaneity\u201d \u2013 the concept that two events happening at the same time for one person might happen at different times for another.<\/p>\n
Another noted that Einstein\u2019s theory of relativity is one of\u00a0science\u2019s most rigorously tested theories.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot here that clearly indicates that there is a lack of proper understanding,\u201d the academic said of the paper.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a reason students spend years of study before they get to publish any insightful research in this subject.\u201d<\/p>\n
Debono, who has no formal background in physics, told Times of Malta he hoped critics would engage with him to\u00a0discuss their reservations in greater detail.<\/p>\n
His interest in physics and philosophy dates back to his adolescence. He really began to dig into the subject during the COVID-19 pandemic, when activity in the criminal law courts slowed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would spend up to 10 hours a day immersed in the philosophy of physics. And I then had to learn mathematics to understand relativity,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would work on it at night, after very long days in court and at the office, sometimes till 3am,\u201d Debono recalled. \u201cIt was my refuge, after a day dealing with human behaviour and emotions in the law courts.\u201d<\/p>\n
Debono served one term as a Nationalist Party MP between 2008 and 2013. Even back then, his extracurricular interests caught attention.<\/p>\n
In January 2012, as his clashes with the Lawrence Gonzi-led government intensified, he was photographed walking into parliament with a copy of The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying \u2013 a book about Buddhist philosophy \u2013 under his arm.<\/p>\n
At the time, he described the book as \u201ca constant reference to me and sits on my bedside table alongside the Bible and works by the Dalai Lama\u201d.<\/p>\n
And later that same year, Debono self-published a collection of haiku, featuring introductions by the late Oliver Friggieri and Rev Prof. Peter Serracino Inglott.<\/p>\n
Debono: \u2018It\u2019s what excites me\u2019<\/p>\n
Open Astronomy, the journal that published Debono\u2019s paper, was founded by Lithuania\u2019s Institute of Theoretical Physics and Astronomy in 1992 as Baltic Astronomy. In 2016, it was acquired by German academic publishing house De Gruyter.<\/p>\n
Its editorial board is chaired by Nasser Barghouty, who served as chief scientist at US space agency NASA\u2019s space\u00a0communications and navigation division until his retirement in 2024. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The journal describes itself as \u201ca peer-reviewed, and entirely open-access online journal.\u201d<\/p>\n
Articles are subject to\u00a0a \u20ac1,000 processing fee \u2013 something academics told Times of Malta is fairly standard \u2013 and are typically reviewed by two expert reviewers, the journal states on its website.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\nHaving made it to peer-reviewed print, Debono is getting on with his life as a criminal lawyer, running a law firm that handles scores of cases every day.<\/p>\n
When the day\u2019s working hours are over, though, it\u2019s back to the physics books.<\/p>\n
\u201cI still read a lot every day, and I would like to pursue further studies in the subject,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s what excites me most right now.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Franco Debono has spent almost 30 years cross-examining witnesses in Malta\u2019s criminal courts. Now he has turned his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":376177,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[199,79],"class_list":{"0":"post-376176","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-physics","8":"tag-physics","9":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376176","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=376176"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376176\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/376177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=376176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=376176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=376176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}