CERN claims to have measured particle that travels faster than light

Big and controversial science news breaking today, via 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."

BBC News has a somewhat less breathless take here. More at Ars Technica, and Wired News.

View the original article here

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

CERN scientists discover particle traveling faster than the speed of light, Einstein theory threatened

By Lydia Leavitt posted Sep 23rd 2011 6:00AM It ain't over till the LHC says so, which is why researchers at CERN are opening up their most recent OPERA experiment to the scientific community before officially releasing its findings. Why, you ask? Because the experiment could shatter one of the fundamentals of physics -- Einstein's theory of special relativity, which says nothing with mass can accelerate faster than the speed of light. While studying neutrino oscillations -- where particles shift from one type of subatomic particle (muon-neutrinos) to another (tau-neutrinos) -- scientists clocked a beam of muon-neutrinos outpacing the aforesaid ray of light by 60 nanoseconds. Calling the result "crazy," lead scientist Antonio Ereditato published the findings online, hoping to attract the attention of others who might shed some light on what it all means. We're not expecting a conclusive answer any time soon, but budding whiz-kids can get educated in the links below.

View the original article here

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.