Friday, November 25, 2011

Faster-than-light neutrinos - latest news

I did not expect to report on this again so quickly but the people at CERN have been able to repeat their experiment with greater accuracy and certainty. And the result confirms the previous findings! From a BBC report (the BBC is usually quick to report science stories and does so with commendable clarity):

"When the Opera team ran the improved experiment 20 times, they found almost exactly the same result."

"This additional test we made is confirming our original finding, but still we have to be very prudent, still we have to look forward to independent confirmation. But this is a positive result."

As mentioned above, independent confirmation is needed. That is to say confirmation of the results by other physicists elsewhere using different equipment. Until this happens there will be a lot of skepticism about the result.