I can't drive 299,792,458 m/s, but neutrinos might go even faster!

[originalpckelly]

If true, then most of what we know about physics is done and over with.
You can send message back in time, which ain't supposed to happen.
Needless to say, this means that this claim will have to be extraordinarily accurate before it is taken even slightly seriously. But hey, who knows?

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/23/science/23speed.html

"Tiny Neutrinos May Have Broken Cosmic Speed Limit

Roll over, Einstein?


The physics world is abuzz with news that a group of European physicists plans to announce Friday that it has clocked a burst of subatomic particles known as neutrinos breaking the cosmic speed limit — the speed of light — that was set by Albert Einstein in 1905.

If true, it is a result that would change the world. But that “if” is enormous.

Even before the European physicists had presented their results — in a paper to appear on the physics Web site arXiv.org on Thursday night and in a seminar at CERN, the European Center for Nuclear Research, on Friday — a chorus of physicists had risen up on blogs and elsewhere arguing that it was way too soon to give up on Einstein and that there was probably some experimental error. Incredible claims require incredible evidence."

But hey, at one time light traveled through some kind of ether. We are always learning new things about the universe, but we are also always learning new things about human incompetence, which this probably is.

[Fire Walk With Me]

1. Dear Mr. Neutrino, please tell everyone in 2000 to NOT vote for Dubya. Thank you very much!

[originalpckelly]

3. Who is Dubya?

:P

Maybe it worked?

[Fire Walk With Me]

5. Yay!

:hi:

[SidDithers]

2. Why is the paper appearing on a physics website...

And not in a peer-reviewed journal?

Regardless, I look forward to reading it. Thanks for posting.

Sid

[jberryhill]

7. Pre-conference announcement

They have "high confidence" and are looking for independent confirmation.

[bananas]

8. This seems to be the preprint at arxiv.org

http://arxiv.org/abs/1109.4897

Via one of the comments at http://www.nature.com/news/2011/110922/full/news.2011.554.html#comment-id-26946

The OPERA paper is online :

http://arxiv.org/abs/1109.4897

Measurement of the neutrino velocity with the OPERA detector in the CNGS beam

Report this comment
2011-09-22 09:09:11 PM
Posted by: Luis Gonzalez-Mestres

[girl gone mad]

9. Despite lack of peer review, the arXiv is considered a serious place to publish..

not merely a "physics website".

e-prints from reputable sources are widely read and cited. Most of the active physicists I know receive and browse RSS feeds for their respective fields on a daily or weekly basis.

[spirit of wine]

4. Terrific!

Now we can have even more Star Trek episodes

[ThoughtCriminal]

6. The GOP Presidential candidates all agree

Neutrinos prove you don't need government regulations or speed limits.