Daniel J. Matyola wrote on Thu, 22 Sep 2011 15:08:40 -0700: > TV and the papers are full of "celebrity news." This is news that matters: > > > GENEVA (AP) - A pillar of physics - that nothing can go faster than > the speed of light - appears to be smashed by an oddball subatomic > particle that has apparently made a giant end run around Albert > Einstein's theories. Scientists at the world's largest physics lab > said Thursday they have clocked neutrinos traveling faster than light. > That's something that according to Einstein's 1905 special theory of > relativity - the famous E (equals) mc2 equation - just doesn't happen. > "The feeling that most people have is this can't be right, this can't > be real," said James Gillies, a spokesman for the European > Organization for Nuclear Research. The organization, known as CERN, > hosted part of the experiment, which is unrelated to the massive $10 > billion Large Hadron Collider also located at the site. Gillies told > The Associated Press that the readings have so astounded researchers > that they are asking others to independently verify the measurements > before claiming an actual discovery. > > "They are inviting the broader physics community to look at what > they've done and really scrutinize it in great detail, and ideally for > someone elsewhere in the world to repeat the measurements," he said > Thursday. Scientists at the competing Fermilab in Chicago have > promised to start such work immediately. "It's a shock," said Fermilab > head theoretician Stephen Parke, who was not part of the research in > Geneva. "It's going to cause us problems, no doubt about that - if > it's true." The Chicago team had similar faster-than-light results in > 2007, but those came with a giant margin of error that undercut its > scientific significance. Other outside scientists expressed skepticism > at CERN's claim that the neutrinos - one of the strangest well-known > particles in physics - were observed smashing past the cosmic speed > barrier of 186,282 miles per second (299,792 kilometers per second). > > University of Maryland physics department chairman Drew Baden called > it "a flying carpet," something that was too fantastic to be > believable. CERN says a neutrino beam fired from a particle > accelerator near Geneva to a lab 454 miles (730 kilometers) away in > Italy traveled 60 nanoseconds faster than the speed of light. > Scientists calculated the margin of error at just 10 nanoseconds, > making the difference statistically significant. But given the > enormous implications of the find, they still spent months checking > and rechecking their results to make sure there was no flaws in the > experiment. "We have not found any instrumental effect that could > explain the result of the measurement," said Antonio Ereditato, a > physicist at the University of Bern, Switzerland, who was involved in > the experiment known as OPERA. The researchers are now looking to the > United States and Japan to confirm the results. A similar neutrino > experiment at Fermilab near Chicago would be capable of running the > tests, said Stavros Katsanevas, the deputy director of France's > National Institute for Nuclear and Particle Physics Research. The > institute collaborated with Italy's Gran Sasso National Laboratory for > the experiment at CERN. Katsanevas said help could also come from the > T2K experiment in Japan, though that is currently on hold after the > country's devastating March 11 earthquake and tsunami. Scientists > agree if the results are confirmed, that it would force a fundamental > rethink of the laws of nature. Einstein's special relativity theory > that says energy equals mass times the speed of light squared > underlies "pretty much everything in modern physics," said John Ellis, > a theoretical physicist at CERN who was not involved in the > experiment. "It has worked perfectly up until now." He cautioned that > the neutrino researchers would have to explain why similar results > weren't detected before. "This would be such a sensational discovery > if it were true that one has to treat it extremely carefully," said Ellis.
Ellis is right - extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. Let's let the dust settle before we rewrite the physics books. Regards, Jim __________________________________________________________________________________________ "Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see." - Mark Twain -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
