GENEVA (AP) -- A pillar of physics - that nothing can go faster than the speed of light - appears to be smashed by an oddball subatomic particle that has apparently made a giant end run around Albert Einstein's theories.

Scientists at the world's largest physics lab said Thursday they have clocked neutrinos traveling faster than light. That's something that according to Einstein's 1905 special theory of relativity - the famous E (equals) mc2 equation - just doesn't happen.

"The feeling that most people have is this can't be right, this can't be real," said James Gillies, a spokesman for the European Organization for Nuclear Research. The organization, known as CERN, hosted part of the experiment, which is unrelated to the massive $10 billion Large Hadron Collider also located at the site.

Gillies told The Associated Press that the readings have so astounded researchers that they are asking others to independently verify the measurements before claiming an actual discovery.

"They are inviting the broader physics community to look at what they've done and really scrutinize it in great detail, and ideally for someone elsewhere in the world to repeat the measurements," he said Thursday.

Scientists at the competing Fermilab in Chicago have promised to start such work immediately.

"It's a shock," said Fermilab head theoretician Stephen Parke, who was not part of the research in Geneva. "It's going to cause us problems, no doubt about that - if it's true."

The Chicago team had similar faster-than-light results in 2007, but those came with a giant margin of error that undercut its scientific significance.

Other outside scientists expressed skepticism at CERN's claim that the neutrinos - one of the strangest well-known particles in physics - were observed smashing past the cosmic speed barrier of 186,282 miles per second (299,792 kilometers per second).

University of Maryland physics department chairman Drew Baden called it "a flying carpet," something that was too fantastic to be believable.

CERN says a neutrino beam fired from a particle accelerator near Geneva to a lab 454 miles (730 kilometers) away in Italy traveled 60 nanoseconds faster than the speed of light. Scientists calculated the margin of error at just 10 nanoseconds, making the difference statistically significant. But given the enormous implications of the find, they still spent months checking and rechecking their results to make sure there was no flaws in the experiment.

"We have not found any instrumental effect that could explain the result of the measurement," said Antonio Ereditato, a physicist at the University of Bern, Switzerland, who was involved in the experiment known as OPERA.

The researchers are now looking to the United States and Japan to confirm the results.

A similar neutrino experiment at Fermilab near Chicago would be capable of running the tests, said Stavros Katsanevas, the deputy director of France's National Institute for Nuclear and Particle Physics Research. The institute collaborated with Italy's Gran Sasso National Laboratory for the experiment at CERN.

Katsanevas said help could also come from the T2K experiment in Japan, though that is currently on hold after the country's devastating March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

Scientists agree if the results are confirmed, that it would force a fundamental rethink of the laws of nature.

Einstein's special relativity theory that says energy equals mass times the speed of light squared underlies "pretty much everything in modern physics," said John Ellis, a theoretical physicist at CERN who was not involved in the experiment. "It has worked perfectly up until now."

He cautioned that the neutrino researchers would have to explain why similar results weren't detected before.

"This would be such a sensational discovery if it were true that one has to treat it extremely carefully," said Ellis.

[Associated Press]

I cannot defy the law of physics captain!



Also guess what. I think someone forgot to carry the two again

Ah subatomic particles... what crazy thing will you do next?

Someone make a transporter.

Glad I'm studying political science

This is amazing. I actually do hope that it's true because the discoveries after that will be so incredibly profound. Some areas are waiting for their next revolution, and this may be one that changes the world.

Gassed beyond belief.

Originally Posted by goodnews.inc

This is amazing. I actually do hope that it's true because the discoveries after that will be so incredibly profound. Some areas are waiting for their next revolution, and this may be one that changes the world.

Gassed beyond belief.

People are gonna be too mind****ed and busy trying to justify x amount of school to x number of people to be focusing on new discoveries after that. (not indefinitely, but you know what I mean)

Sorry, but they might as well "oh shit, we were wrong about evolution this whole time too!"

It's cool as hell but the shitstorm that'll come from it...



(e.g. that time when Pluto was no longer considered a planet.)

Originally Posted by lawleypop

(e.g. that time when Pluto was no longer considered a planet.)

I don't care what some nerd in a lab coat says. Pluto is still a planet.

Originally Posted by reeves

I don't care what some nerd in a lab coat says. Pluto is still a planet.

It's still considered a planet. Not one of the major ones. It's defined as a dwarf planet now. Just like the planet after Pluto, Eris.

It's funny that I've been reading Thomas Kuhn the past few weeks.

Originally Posted by MacAttk

It's still considered a planet. Not one of the major ones. It's defined as a dwarf planet now. Just like the planet after Pluto, Eris.

They only say "dwarf planet" to avoid a revolt. All that matters is it isn't in the same class as Earth, Mars, Jupiter and the others.

Pluto will always be a planet to me. Just like there will always be 12 zodiac signs.

Originally Posted by britb

They only say "dwarf planet" to avoid a revolt. All that matters is it isn't in the same class as Earth, Mars, Jupiter and the others.

Pluto will always be a planet to me. Just like there will always be 12 zodiac signs.

Myanmar will always be Burma, Sri Lanka will always be Ceylon, Thailand will always be Siam etc.

MJ will always be black...

Originally Posted by britb

They only say "dwarf planet" to avoid a revolt. All that matters is it isn't in the same class as Earth, Mars, Jupiter and the others.

Pluto will always be a planet to me. Just like there will always be 12 zodiac signs.

A dwarf planet is a type of planet. Also, it isn't considered an actual planet of our solar system because it doesn't share the same characteristics as the outer gas planets of our solar system. Pluto = rock, outer planets = gas, several other differences as well.

The biggest distinction between a planet and a dwarf planet is if it's the only object in its orbital path. Pluto has other objects near it that share the same orbit - planets don't, other than their own moons, which are relatively much smaller (eg Io compared to Jupiter is a much larger difference than Pluto compared to anything else near it).

So you guys can shut up about Pluto...

The IAU defines a planet as a celestial body:
-is in orbit around the Sun
-is round in shape (a result of it's mass and thus it's size)
-has "cleared the neighbourhood" around its orbit

A dwarf planet is one that:
-is in orbit around the Sun (so cannot be a satellite)
-is round or close to round in shape
-has NOT "cleared the neighbourhood" around its orbit

Pluto is a body in the Kuiper Belt (it's a KBO), so it shares it's orbit with lots of other KBO's. Also, it's not the largest.

Alright? Planet is a planet. Dwarf planet is a dwarf planet, not a type of planet. It's a celestial body, yes. Pluto is a dwarf planet, yes. Shut up. Yes.

EDIT: Btw that definition only stands for our solar system. So back to how Einstein was a wrongling please.