November 18, 2011

expert reaction to a new version of the neutrinos experiment seeming to show they can travel faster than light

The media spotlight was quickly trained on this fine-tuned repeat of the OPERA experiment which suggested in September that neutrinos could travel faster than light.

Professor Jim Al-Khalili, of the Physics Department at the University of Surrey, who in September threatened to eat his shorts if neutrinos could really travel faster than light, said:

“I am not yet ready to get out my knife and fork.

“The results have only dealt with some possible errors. There are still a number of other possible errors and uncertainties that they are working on ruling out.

“Ideally, the experiment would have to be done somewhere else entirely to try to verify the controversial result that these tiny particles really are going faster than light in case there is still a systemic problem with this particular experiment at CERN.”