  Changes in the properties of the vector mesons in hot and dense hadronic
matter, as produced in heavy ion collisions, lead to the intriguing possibility
of the opening of the decay channel $\omega \ra \rho \pi$, for the omega meson,
which is impossible in free space. This along with the channel $\omega \pi \ra
\pi \pi$ would result in a decrease in its effective life-time enabling it to
decay within the hot zone and act as a chronometer in contradiction to the
commonly held opinion and would have implications vis a vis determination of
the size of the region through pion interferometry. A new peak and a radically
altered shape of the low invariant mass dilepton spectra appears due to
different shift in the masses of $\rho$ and $\omega$ mesons. The Walecka model
is used for the underlying calculation for the sake of illustration.
