  Contrary to common belief, the standard tenet of Brans-Dicke theory reducing
to general relativity when omega tends to infinity is false if the trace of the
matter energy-momentum tensor vanishes. The issue is clarified in a new
approach using conformal transformations. The otherwise unaccountable limiting
behavior of Brans-Dicke gravity is easily understood in terms of the conformal
invariance of the theory when the sources of gravity have radiation-like
properties. The rigorous computation of the asymptotic behavior of the
Brans-Dicke scalar field is straightforward in this new approach.
