Speed of light exceeded? CERN think it may be...

Speed of light exceeded? CERN think it may be...

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Sway

Original Poster:

26,493 posts

196 months

Thursday 22nd September 2011
quotequote all
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-1501...

CERN have noticed that in the course of 15000 measurements, a statistically significant proportion show neutrinos travelling at a speed greater than that of light.

Reading between the lines, it seems this is such a paradigm shift that they are downplaying it massively and asking the rest of the related community to double check.

Now, my understanding is about that of 'Why does E=mc2'. I recognise that it is a fundamental tenet of the standard model that light is the fastest hombre around, but, if this is backed up, and light speed is exceeded by neutrinos, what implications does this have?

Does it pretty much bin all the empirical support of the standard model, or is it actually just a major, but historically insignificant tweak to current knowledge?


Edited by Sway on Thursday 22 September 22:04