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Second experiment confirms faster-than-light particles
Key Excerpts from Article on Website of Washington Post
Posted: November 29th, 2011
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/second...
A second experiment at the European facility that reported subatomic particles zooming faster than the speed of light stunning the world of physics has reached the same result, scientists said [today]. The positive outcome of the [second] test makes us more confident in the result, said Fernando Ferroni, president of the Italian Institute for Nuclear Physics. Ferroni is one of 160 physicists involved in the international collaboration known as OPERA (Oscillation Project with Emulsion Tracking Apparatus) that performed the experiment. While the second experiment has made an important test of consistency of its result, Ferroni [said], more tests are needed. There is still a large crowd of skeptical physicists who suspect that the original measurement done in September was an error. Should the results stand, they would upend more than a century of modern physics. In the first round of experiments, a massive detector buried in a mountain in Gran Sasso, Italy, recorded neutrinos generated at the CERN [European Council for Nuclear Research] particle accelerator on the French-Swiss border arriving 60 nanoseconds sooner than expected. In recent weeks, the OPERA team tightened the packets of neutrinos that CERN sent sailing toward Italy. Such tightening removed some uncertainty in the neutrinos speed. The detector still saw neutrinos moving faster than light.
Note: For an awesome essay exploring both an earlier experiment which clearly showed faster-than-light effects and its powerful and inspiring implications, click here.
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