Speed of Light Test to Be Performed Again

Skepticism over an experiment that saw neutrinos break the speed of light leads CERN researchers to try it all again.

Hey, remember when those scientists in Switzerland and Italy claimed to have broken the speed of light last month? Well, the same team is going to perform the experiment again, albeit with a few tweaks just to make sure their readings were right and that Einstein was the wrongest wronger who ever wronged. The first time around, researchers at the CERN particle accelerator in Switzerland blasted neutrinos in 10-millisecond bursts toward a monitor 700 kilometres away in Gran Sasso, Italy. Those neutrinos showed up 60 nanoseconds sooner than they should have had they been travelling at the speed of light, leading the team to conclude that they broke the speed of light. But because this is science, and every breakthrough is met with a thousand claims of skepticism, the team will perform the experiment again. This time, they'll fire the neutrinos in bursts lasting only a nanosecond or two, which means the team in Italy will be able to measure more accurately which neutrinos are arriving, and when.

Via Rutgers physics professor Matt Strassler:

"It’s like sending a series of loud and isolated clicks instead of a long blast on a horn; in the latter case you have to figure out exactly when the horn starts and stops, but in the former you just hear each click and then it’s already over."

Thanks for making complicated things easy for us to figure out, scientist! Anyhow, once CERN's new results are available, we'll have a much better idea of whether neutrinos truly can break the speed of light. If so, sweet. If not, well, then we're obviously a failure as a species and ought to call it a day with this "science" thing.