Faster-than-light neutrinos are back within the game

Back in September, CERN dropped the improbable news about its faster-than-light neutrinos, causing eggheads worldwide to cry foul . Understandable really, as though true, plenty of what we expect we all know concerning the universe essentially falls apart. So, expect severe bouts of head-scratching once again, as a second round of experiments from an analogous OPERA collaborative has reported similar results. The initial experiments used an extended chain of neutrinos, fired from point A to B. Skeptics claimed that this could have introduced a factor of uncertainty to the implications — the recent tests used much shorter blasts, meaning that in the event that they arrived just as quickly, then this potential cause for error is scratched out. The hot data still should undergo the standard peer review, and other possible causes for error remain. For now though, it seems like one of the most main arguments against have been addressed, making the Einstein-challenging neutrinos one step closer (or is that ahead?) to re-writing the rule of thumb book.

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This post is tagged: initial experiments, long chain, neutrinos, peer review, rule book, uncertainty