Can Relativity Explain Faster Than Light Particles? 315
gbrumfiel writes "Two weeks ago, researchers claimed particles called neutrinos were travelling faster-than-light and violating the laws of special relativity. But now it looks as though general relativity might be behind the experiment's unusual result. An independent analysis claims that the original experiment, known as OPERA, failed to take into account differences in earth's gravitational field between the neutrino source and the OPERA detector. As Nature News reports, gravity can distort time according to Einstein's theory, and the effect could explain why neutrinos appear to arrive 60 nanoseconds ahead of schedule. The OPERA team is now reviewing the new analysis."
If this is true... (Score:0, Interesting)
Faster than light is still possible, but now it's due to gravitational effects instead of innate property of neutrinos. It makes finding the Higgs boson more important than ever.
Re:WRONG! (Score:2, Interesting)
THIS IS CORRECT SCIENTIFIC PROCEDURE!
Aside from the part where it gets plastered all over the media rather than a quiet discussion with their peers.
"Speed" (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:WRONG! (Score:5, Interesting)
That's what you get with open access science. The alternatives are simple: make the public smarter or treat them like dumb animals and don't tell them anything. I prefer the former, even if it is more difficult.