The physics world is abuzz with news that a group of European physicists plans to announce Friday that it has clocked a burst of subatomic particles known as neutrinos breaking the cosmic speed limit – the speed of light – that was set by Albert Einstein in 1905.
If true, it is a result that would change the world. But that "if" is enormous.
Even before the European physicists had presented their results – in a paper that appeared on the physics website www.arXiv.org Thursday night and in a seminar at CERN, the European Center for Nuclear Research, on Friday – a chorus of physicists had risen up on blogs and elsewhere arguing that it was way too soon to give up on Einstein and that there was probably some experimental error. Incredible claims require incredible evidence.
"These guys have done their level best, but before throwing Einstein on the bonfire, you would like to see an independent experiment," said John Ellis, a CERN theorist who has published work on the speeds of the ghostly particles known as neutrinos.
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