In a message dated 2/12/01 2:19:16 PM Eastern Standard Time, palmer@SFU.CA
writes:
<< This item screams for a citation! Please let list members know where
we may read something about it. There are lots of questions hanging
in the air otherwise, and speculative discussion by an uninformed
public is not the best way to resolve them. At least the name (well,
some of the leading names) of the scientist making this exaggerated
claim should be included so we may mess about in the arXiv!
Leigh
>>
Point well taken. However I thing the term "exaggerated claim" may be
overstated. The scientists who announced this admit it will take another year
to fully analyze the data to rule out some overlooked error. While they are
saying publicly that there is only a one in a hundred chance for this to be
the result of a statistical fluke I doubt anyone could give odds on what the
likelihood of there being an undetected systematic error. I guess the
question is will this go the way of the split electron experiment at Brown
University. Of course the difference here is that some of the possible
physics involved is something we expect to see with accelerators now under
construction. CERN 2005 hopefully.