Faster than the speed of light
BBC:
What if particles really can exceed the speed of light?It is a fascinating and provocative question.But first, it should be said that Thursday's news that physicists have seen subatomic particles called neutrinos exceed the Universe's speed limit is a picture of science still at work.The researchers at Cern in Switzerland and Gran Sasso in Italy have tried really hard to find what they might be doing wrong - over three years and thousands of experiments - because they can hardly believe what they are seeing.The publication of their results is a call for help to pick holes in their methods, and save physics as we now know it."The scientists are right to be extremely cautious about interpreting these findings," said Jim Al-Khalili, a physicist from the University of Surrey, who suggested that a simple error in the measurement is probably the source of all the fuss.But he has gone further."So let me put my money where my mouth is: if the Cern experiment proves to be correct and neutrinos have broken the speed of light, I will eat my boxer shorts on live TV."
...As exciting as it might be to watch a scientist eat his shorts on live TV, some are speculating that the find might make time travel possible. While that would be interesting, I think making space travel more feasible would be the real triumph.
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