- Follow this blog:
- RSS
Get ready for time travel
By Mark Halper | September 22, 2011, 1:56 PM PDT
The boffins at CERN in Switzerland were simply trying to beam neutrinos on a 455-mile under-mountain journey to Italy, to see how many of them would reverse their state.
Well wouldn’t you know it, those pesky neutrinos arrived ahead of time. But this was no ordinary case of early. They got there faster than the speed of light.
As the BBC notes, the result “threatens to upend a century of physics.” The article points out, “The speed of light is the Universe’s ultimate speed limit, and much of modern physics – as laid out in part by Albert Einstein in his special theory of relativity – depends on the idea that nothing can exceed it.”
The CERN physicists were testing to see how many muon neutrinos would flip and arrive as tau neutrinos at Italy’s Gran Sasso laboratory.
During the 3-year experiment, the neutrinos pulled into Gran Sasso “a few billionths of a second” ahead of what the laws of physics should permit, the article states.
Antonio Ereditato, author of a report on the findings, said the CERN team is refraining from officially claiming the neutrinos traveled faster than light until other scientists can corroborate the results.
“We are not claiming things, we want just to be helped by the community in understanding our crazy result – because it is crazy,” he told the BBC. “And of course the consequences can be very serious.”
Or fun even. Get ready to book your tickets back to the past. Presumably the Dr. Who Express will be carbon free.
Photo: Willie Williams/Wikimedia Commons
Chief Operating Officer, Chief Technology Officer, and Co-Founder of Modern Climate. I helped start the consumer-centric advertising agency in 1998. As COO, I'm responsible for many areas including internal technology solutions, financials, human capital, legal, and supplier relationships. As CTO and an experienced technologist, I create systems and software architectures to ensure effective and innovative marketing solutions. I enjoy being continuously involved in research and development efforts ranging from how to apply advances in neuroscience and psychology to emerging technology platforms and development methodologies. Prior to Modern Climate, I was Director of Interactive Media at John Ryan, a global marketing firm, where I developed satellite-connected, interactive kiosk systems. I'm a member of the International Association of Software Architects and a Certified Scrum Master from the Scrum Alliance. I hold a bachelors degree in graphic design with a computer science minor from Bemidji State University and completed marketing and IT programs from the University of Saint Thomas.
John Moberg's Blog 
Leave a comment