Faster than light neutrino errors revealed

beso | 03:11 Sat 03rd Mar 2012 | Science

13 Answers

The OPERA experimental team at CERN have announced that problems with the stability of the timing equipment have been found.

As predicted, it comes with none of the media attention given to the original publication of the faster than light result.

From his observations of cannon drilling, Count Rumford concluded that heat could NOT be a form of

Anyone see the meteor ?

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MarkRae

Oh no! Maybe God wasn't on their side...

birdie1971

I know that science isn't infallible but the finite speed of light is one of the most proven and tested 'facts' that science has. That the quizzical result was down to instrumentation failure is no great surprise to me.

As you rightly say Beso, the media will report it – eventually – in a small column buried in the back of the paper that hardly anyone reads. This is par for the course for newspapers and media of all colours: massive coverage of a story that might rock the foundations of science/politics/religion/technology and then when that story turns out to be largely nothing... then nothing. No retractions. No apologizes... zilch.

Buenchico

To be fair to the media, "Einstein got it wrong" is one hell of a news story, whereas "Einstein got it right" isn't really news at all!

mibn2cweus

Great news for all them grampahs that have been sufferin' from sleepless nights lately.

jake-the-peg

Disappointing - was hoping for some new insights not as dramatic as the breaking of the speed of light but perhaps something interesting none the less.

Unfortunately the reports will probably be along the lines of "Boffins screw loose" or something like that so the smaller the better!

Ah well onwards and upwards the Higgs question will be solved one way or another this year

rov1100

Depending on which paper you read it was suggested that the neutrinos actually travelled faster with faulty equipment than if there had been no errors.

JonnyBoy12

The speed of light is not the fastest thing in the universe. The speed bad news travels is much faster than that!

percypineapple

So, Does this mean that we will not be able to time travel? I really never did know why it was so important to move faster than light speed. what would it have meant if the particle did go faster? would it just be another mathmatical problem to sort, or would it have a real impact on the world as we know it? what possible new inventions could arise?

beso

Question Author

Finding something traveling faster than the speed of light would have radically unraveled our understanding of the structure of SpaceTime as we have known it for a century.

It would need more than maths to sort it because the maths just provides the quantative description of the underlying physical properties which need to make some kind of sense. Maths without that is just a curiosity.

birdie1971

Buenchico - “To be fair to the media, "Einstein got it wrong" is one hell of a news story, whereas "Einstein got it right" isn't really news at all!”

I know. I'm an idealist and a romantic at heart. I dream that people will do the decent thing and admit when they're wrong and have made a mistake. I'm also a realist. That combination is destined to make me perpetually disappointed.

;-)

percypineapple

If Einstein was wrong, will rockets stop flying and will the international space station fall to the ground, and will Hiroshima rebuild itself? or is this a different equation? I must admit there are people out there with brains a million times better than mine, I worked with a marine biologist who's brain was in a different world to mine, and I do accept there are some brilliant people out there, but is it possible that some may be trying to gain fame and fortune by using trillions of dollars to prove someone wrong? will cern cure cancer or bring peace to the world,stop religious wars, or just tell us that they can send a particle through the most expensive tunnel in the universe as fast as light, which is pretty much what I can do with a light switch. please don't reply and baffle me with science, I asking this on behalf of the man in the street to whom quantum maths/science means nothing and who probably evolved from an ape, not an alien from a distant planet.