Large Hadron Collider at CERN: Einstein 'was right all along'

The Telegraph ^ | 2/24/2012

[bruinbirdman]

Physicists operating the Large Hadron Collider at the CERN laboratory near Geneva may have to rethink their claim that particles can travel faster than the speed of light after a source suggested that a bad connection affected the measurements.

They shocked the scientific world by claiming to have disproved Albert Einstein’s theory of special relativity.

But a report in the Science Insider journal claims that “a bad connection between a GPS unit and a computer” may have affected the reading.

Einstein's theory of special relativity, proposed in 1905, states that nothing in the universe can travel faster than the speed of light in a vacuum.

But researchers at the CERN lab near Geneva claimed they had recorded neutrinos, a type of tiny particle, travelling faster than the barrier of 186,282 miles per second.

Scientists at CERN claimed that neutrinos arrived 60 nanoseconds earlier than the 2.3 milliseconds taken by light.

The report in Science Insider said the "60 nanoseconds discrepancy appears to come from a bad connection between a fiber optic cable that connects to the GPS receiver used to correct the timing of the neutrinos' flight and an electronic card in a computer. "

"After tightening the connection and then measuring the time it takes data

[woofie]

[woofie]

[El Gato]

Einstein 'was right all along'

Of course, he was an EINSTEIN.

[Viking2002]

Is that an actual shot of their cabling? It looks like most of the server rooms I service........bird's nest.

"But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: for men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away, for his name is Obama."

[tet68]

Yeah, except it cost a million bucks.

[Puckster]

Well.....the science was settled for about 60 nanoseconds.

Damn it Jim, now hyper-drive won't exist.

But seriously, you look at the collider and then at the “get ur done” wiring.....goodness, how can anyone take any further announcements seriously from CERN.

I dunno.

[4rcane]

Einstein could be wrong one day, but not today

[Bullish]

I am SO glad we got all this cleared up!

[RedCell]

I had to read the headline twice.

[SpaceBar]

My money was always on the old patent examiner.

[Talisker]

Physicists operating the Large Hadron Collider at the CERN laboratory near Geneva may have to rethink their claim that particles can travel faster than the speed of light after a source suggested that a bad connection affected the measurements.

LOL, yeah, right. Because CERN is, like, a buncha cables, see, and ya gotta go around tightening them all, or else the damn thing don't work.

Joel Cairo: "I certainly wish you would have invented a more reasonable story. I felt distinctly like an idiot repeating it."

Sam Spade: "Don't worry about the story's goofiness. A sensible one would have had us all in the cooler."

- Bogart, Maltese Falcon

[bruinbirdman]

"how can anyone take any further announcements seriously from CERN"

The God machine has a flaw?

yitbos

[SpaceBar]

There is a certain irony in these whiz kids calibrating their instruments with GPS, a system that retains it’s accuracy precisely through relativistic corrections.

[infowarrior]

But seriously, you look at the collider and then at the “get ur done” wiring.....goodness, how can anyone take any further announcements seriously from CERN.

I dunno.

Who in the aitch ee double hockey sticks did they hire to do that wiring? Cable TVs "r" Us?

'The lowest bidder' has struck again, it seems...

the infowarrior

[Nik Naym]

Come on folks, you don’t actually believe the pictures are of wiring at the Hadron Collider do you?

The first is a pix of some old electrical junction box.

The second one is obviously some cob-job done to a drop-in light fixture in a drop ceiling somewhere.

Jeesh people can be so gullible.

[The KG9 Kid]

"... They shocked the scientific world by claiming to have disproved Albert Einstein’s theory of special relativity."

The most humiliating part in being comically wrong about declaring Einstein's Theory of Relativity to be disproven is the part where all of your peers and colleagues derisively mock you every chance they get by referring to you as 'Einstein' at the end of every statement:

"Hey, did you check to see if the cable is plugged in this time, Einstein?"

Honestly, anyone with shame would resign rather than put up with that.

[Rocky]

all of your peers and colleagues derisively mock you every chance they get by referring to you as 'Einstein' at the end of every statement...

I hadn't thought of that. All of the Einstein paraphernalia showing up at the office (coffee mugs, calendars, screen savers, tee shirts). A party celebrating Einstein's birthday. You might literally never hear the end of it. And if you get mad, it's, "Hey, Einstein, lighten up."

Then they start calling you Neutrino Man, faster than a speeding photon.

Or, in honor of the bad connection, you become known as "Larry the Cable Guy's apprentice."

Yep, sounds like a career change is in order.

[BobL]

I don’t know if I’d be strapping GPS receivers to electrons to measure their speed. Might not work too well.

[hattend]