In Support of Doubt

Yesterday news broke that the possible revolutionary findings of the physics experiments that detected particles traveling faster than the speed of light may have been corrupted by two mechanical errors, one of them being a loose cable. Since proof of particles breaking the speed of light would contradict Einstein’s special theory of relativity, not to mention certain principles of quantum mechanics, the initial report in September was met with a great deal of skepticism from the scientific community, and even members of the team that released the data expressed doubts at the time. Since the announcement, the research team and physicists around the world have been reviewing the results to see if they could detect any flaws in the experiment. The tests were performed by the OPERA collaboration, a research venture between CERN and the Gran Sasso National Laboratory in Italy. Initially they measured neutrinos traveling from one location to another 450 miles away and found that some arrived 60 nanoseconds earlier than should be possible under the limits of light speed, creating a stir in scientific community. Now the same team that made the finding has uncovered two flaws in the experimental design which may have altered the results. The first issue is that the GPS tracking system they used may have been providing incorrect timestamps. The second, more attention-grabbing, problem is a faulty connection between the cable linking the GPS signal to the master clock. Oddly enough, the two concerns would actually have opposite effects on the neutrino time measurements, so the question of how fast neutrinos actually move is hardly settled. More neutrino tests will be performed this spring using CERN’s Large Hadron Collider. While some may look at the likely debunked results with a degree of snark, we can also look at this story as a reminder of how important it is to review your work. Because these particular results were so unusual and had such potential impact on modern science, close scrutiny was guaranteed. But what about our typical, everyday research? While the flaws in the OPERA team’s experiment are hardly cringe-worthy, I’m sure we can all recall incidents in our personal and professional lives in which a drastic oversight was made in a project. If anything, this should be an encouragement – even world-class physicists make the same mistakes we do. Though one advantage for physicists is that they can always just shrug and point to the Uncertainty Principle. Read more about the OPERA experiments and the faulty cable discovery here.