Re: [Phys-l] Neutrinos going faster than speed of light?

["John Clement" <clement@hal-pc.org>]

If true, there will be some very interesting debates in physics.  But it
reminds me of the debacle  a number of years ago when Univ of Houston was on
the front page of the NYTimes as having discovered a magnetic monopole.
They were looking at cosmic ray traces that produce pits in lexan plates.
Well a grad student went back and found the measurement of the thickness of
the plates was off by 30%, so their monopole ended up being a plausible but
rare heavy nucleus track.

I am always in favor of some new discovery which violates some basic
principles.  It makes things so much more interesting, but the odds are
against this one.

John M. Clement
Houston, TX

> One advantage of getting old is that you can approach these 
> kinds of news items with a certain amount of equanimity.  
> Every three to for years one gets such announcements about a 
> new measurement invalidating relativity in some fashion of 
> the other.  I recall as a young graduate student, working on 
> my GR dissertation, and there was a grand announcement about 
> new measurements of the mass quadrupole moment of the sun; 
> coming from  a reputable research group, as I recall.  The 
> measurements, if true, would render Einstein's version of GR 
> inadequate.  As we were walking over to a talk at a 
> conference that was coincidentally being held on campus, I 
> was chatting with one of the greybeards in the department.  
> Who basically calmed the young eager student down with a 
> "wait and see" attitude and a message much like this one.
>
> So I say let's wait and see.  If true very interesting; but 
> if I had to bet money on it . . .