The team which found that neutrinos may travel faster than light has carried out an improved version of their experiment - and confirmed the result.
If confirmed by other experiments, the find could undermine one of the basic principles of modern physics.
Critics of the first report in September had said that the long bunches of neutrinos (tiny particles) used could introduce an error into the test.
The new work used much shorter bunches.
[...] The experiments have been carried out by the Opera collaboration - short for Oscillation Project with Emulsion (T)racking Apparatus.
It hinges on sending bunches of neutrinos created at the Cern facility (actually produced as decays within a long bunch of protons produced at Cern) through 730km (454 miles) of rock to a giant detector at the INFN-Gran Sasso laboratory in Italy.
The initial series of experiments, comprising 15,000 separate measurements spread out over three years, found that the neutrinos arrived 60 billionths of a second faster than light would have, travelling unimpeded over the same distance.
The idea that nothing can exceed the speed of light in a vacuum forms a cornerstone in physics - first laid out by James Clerk Maxwell and later incorporated into Albert Einstein's theory of special relativity.
[...] When the Opera team ran the improved experiment 20 times, they found almost exactly the same result.
O voce ieșită din comun (Charly Luske) la "Vocea Olandei" interpretează "It's a Man's Man's Man's World", piesă înregistrată pe 16 februarie 1996 într-un studio din New York de James Brown (a fost #1 în Billboard Top R&B Singles și #8 în Billboard Hot 100, pentru că în 2004 să ajungă pe locul 123 în lista celor mai bune 500 de piese ale tuturor timpurilor, realizată de revista Rolling Stones):
I was reading news today and was sadly touched to hear that Dennis Ritchie had died. SlashGear.com had told the sad truth about the death of a man that not only built a masterpiece during his lifetime, but of a man who shaped the insights of the future as we know it today.
For those of you who do not know what Dennis Ritchie had accomplished, or who had never heard of him or his work, you might want to read the original article here. If you are an IT professional or a developer and still have not heard of Dennis Ritchie, you must read the original story.
I was also touched by Steve Jobs' death when it happened. It was, without a doubt, sad to see a man go down in suffering. Contra vim mortis non est medicamen în hortis. Although I never owned any Apple products ever, I admired his work and the way he managed to bring, without much innovation, 15-year old StarTrek (TNG, mostly) concepts to life. I admired most his marketing skills, because if that lacked then Apple would have gone bankrupt years ago.
Steve Jobs' death shattered the online world. The media just got overwhelmed by the huge amount of attention this had received. But it was not because Steve Jobs was a visionary în the true sense of the meaning - it was in fact because Jobs was a visionary of how one can become wealthy through successful entrepreneurship. I am not trying to discard Jobs' role in this though. De mortuis nil nisi bene. What I am trying to say is that people have always had more fascination into leaders that supposedly changed the world, even if that hadn't affected them directly, instead of applauding one's accomplishments and, most importantly, their legacy.
When Dennis Ritchie died, a couple of news had emerged. No headlines, no media shattering. In fact, I barely heard about it and was deeply saddened. I always knew we live in a cruel world, but we need to learn to appreciate more what we have been given freely (and which irremediably affected all of us, although there were few people knowing that) than what had been given to us for a price few of us are willing to pay, even when talking by a small gadget such as the iPod.
I pity the death of Steve Jobs and acknowledge his accomplishments throughout the years in transforming Apple into the giant it had become today, but I will greatly miss the light of modesty for the true visionary that Dennis Ritchie was, whose legacy continues to bring us the engineering of tomorrow.
Dennis Ritchie and Steve Jobs, may you both rest in peace: Dominus vobiscum!
#include <stdio.h> main() { printf("goodbye, world"); }R.I.P Mr. Ritchie. Thanks for inspiring the world. - aj.cung</stdio.h> (Aj Cung's comment on the original story)
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Neutrino Experiment Confirms Speed of Light Barrier Breached
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