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Faster-Than-Light Findings All Wrong: New Study

Scientists refute labmates' shocking results

By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff

Posted Nov 21, 2011 7:13 AM CST

(Newser) – The scientists who said they recorded particles traveling faster than light in September—and then confirmed their own findings last week—have it wrong, international scientists in Italy say. The ICARUS project, based in the same laboratory as the OPERA experiment, argued that if the particles had traveled faster than light, much of their energy would have been lost.

ICARUS scientists ran tests of their own and found that the neutrino beam sent from CERN had an energy spectrum appropriate for speed-of-light travel—and no faster, Reuters reports. A CERN scientist called the paper "definitive" and wrote that it explains that "the difference between the speed of neutrinos and the speed of light cannot be as large as that seen by OPERA, and is certainly smaller than that by three orders of magnitude, and compatible with zero." More debate is sure to follow as other scientists ready experiments of their own at Fermilab near Chicago and Japan's KEK lab.

Einstein's findings may be safe.
Einstein's findings may be safe.   (AP Photo)
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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 62 comments
ottokrog
Dec 5, 2011 2:58 PM CST
What if the speed of light isn't constant, as some physicists suggested recently? What if the speed of light varies through time and space? That would create some interesting theory. At least I think so. Antimatter is the mind and consciousness of all living entities. You are your own universe. Reality is where the minds (antimatter) meets the physical universe. Interested? Then read my philosophical multiverse theory. Google crestroyer theory, and find it instantly. http://crestroyertheory.com/the-theory/
Jingo
Nov 23, 2011 3:17 PM CST
I think everyone can agree that the particles were moving pretty gosh-darned fast.
TARDIS
Nov 21, 2011 1:34 PM CST
The neutrinos never went FTL, they have a short cut

 
physics • speed of light • Albert Einstein • CERN • Theory of Relativity • OPERA

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