Broke the speed of light

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/8783011/Speed-of-light-broken-at-CERN-scientists-claim.html

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/22/us-science-light-idUSTRE78L4FH20110922

Hot damn. Hopefully their calculations are correct.

meh

I heard this earlier. Cool but obviously a discovery that violates all understanding of physics, should be repeated before we go all crazy.

Looking good so far.

I'll wait for someone else to do it before I go bouncing off the walls.

Oh, i'd be very happy if this turns out to be true; physics would have another boom dealing with such a huge problem. Who knows what kind of stuff we could figure out. I'm just keeping a cautious watch.

Good article on the implications, and many physicists explaining the call for caution:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/23/science-light-idUSL5E7KN33E20110923

I was talking about this with a lab mate, apparently the people who found the results assume there is a methodological problem in their analysis, since the result is so consistent.

Hopefully the American collider goes for the replication

This rustles my jimmies.

Originally posted by inimalist
I was talking about this with a lab mate, apparently the people who found the results assume there is a methodological problem in their analysis, since the result is so consistent.

Hopefully the American collider goes for the replication

I think it would be cooler if there was something odd about neutrino generation that no one knew about.

The most interesting idea I've heard is that because Maxwell's Equations (from whence comes the constant c) were pre-quantum physics they didn't account for the effects of vacuum energy on the electrical and magnetic constants.

I bet an Albicurre warp metric occurred.
Next: FTL combat reflexes.

Originally posted by Symmetric Chaos
I think it would be cooler if there was something odd about neutrino generation that no one knew about.

The most interesting idea I've heard is that because Maxwell's Equations (from whence comes the constant c) were pre-quantum physics they didn't account for the effects of vacuum energy on the electrical and magnetic constants.

🙂

"just-so" theories exist in physics then too?

It is interesting, I have no idea about physics at this level, so I can't really comment. It will be huge if it replicates, but one of the things I found really refreshing was talking about how the scientists presenting this data themselves talked about it. Apparently they released it in order to have someone figure out where they are wrong. After, iirc, 15000 trials or whatever, they are still incredibly skeptical about their results, whereas, it would be simple for someone without that level of hubris to just run wild with various theories. If it pans out, there is fame no matter what, but to see them choose to be skeptical in the face of such a potentially monumental discovery is, idk, praiseworthy?

Some are pooping themselves over information transmission into the past.

So much is wrong with that such as "where are the transmissions of stuff from the future?"

I heard the suggestion of "we already observed the maximum variance in information transmission into the past" and the collection and retransmission of that information takes longer than the net "gain" into the past that that information travels. Meaning, it will be impossible to chain up some transmissions to get a significant net gain to send stuff into the past.

For one, you'd have to have a machine already built to collect that information. If you send it into the past far enough...the machine never gets built. Someone has to be listening to get the information. So **** you time travel hopefuls. 😄

Originally posted by dadudemon
So much is wrong with that such as "where are the transmissions of stuff from the future?"

Originally posted by dadudemon
For one, you'd have to have a machine already built to collect that information. If you send it into the past far enough...the machine never gets built. Someone has to be listening to get the information. So **** you time travel hopefuls. 😄

Originally posted by King Kandy
Didn't this basically answer your own question?

???

That was...the entire point...because...it's not my own question.

😕 😕 😕

who gives a shit? I'm more worried about the fact that Reese cups keep getting smaller. Maybe after someone cracks that mystery and returns my reese cups to normal size, then i can start caring about this

to be honest, most of your conversations are either too confusing to follow or i dont know enough about the topic for it too make sense. lmao, but it all sounds interesting.

Originally posted by dadudemon
???

That was...the entire point...because...it's not my own question.

😕 😕 😕

Just saw more of this story on the news, and they brought to mind a good point: all prior challenges to special relativity have been proven wrong. So the track record for challenging Einstein is not a good one.

Originally posted by Symmetric Chaos
I think it would be cooler if there was something odd about neutrino generation that no one knew about.

I saw a report that speculated that these findings could be valid and still not contradict Einstein if we assume the existence of special pockets of space that neutrinos can 'zip through', IE some kind of slipspace.

Subatomic wormholes, perhaps?

Meps. Someone just probably spilled coffee on a crucial circuit.