Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[MonkeyHead]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15471118

Experiment to be repeated in slightly different way.

Interesting passage:

Originally, Cern fired the protons in a long pulse lasting 10 microseconds (10 millionths of a second).

The neutrinos showed up 60 nanoseconds (60 billionths of a second) earlier than light would have over the same distance.

However, the time measurement is not direct; the researchers cannot know how long it took an individual neutrino to travel from Switzerland to Italy.

 
Cern's director of research says the new experimental design will be more efficient Instead, the measurement must be performed statistically: the scientists superimpose the neutrinos' "arrival times" on the protons' "departure times", over and over again and taking an average

Anyone else of the opinion that it is this mechanism that has led to the error?

This should be addressed by the new measurements, in which protons are sent in a series of short bursts - lasting just one or two nanoseconds, thousands of times shorter - with a large gap (roughly 500 nanoseconds) in between each burst.

So, instead of making a best "mean" geuss after a large stream of particles, the process will be re-done for much shorter bursts, allowing for statistically more meaningful measurements of transit time (ish?).

[kukouri]

Going to be interesting if they can get the same results consistently.

[MonkeyHead]

Even if they dont it should still be interesting.

[Danaru]

I have to imagine being the scientists involved in this has to be the saddest thing ever

"Welp, I just completely invalidated my eight years of education. Great. Sure glad I put all that work in."

[Osmosis Jones]

I have to imagine being the scientists involved in this has to be the saddest thing ever

"Welp, I just completely invalidated my eight years of education. Great. Sure glad I put all that work in."

Are you kidding? I'm a scientist and I'd give my right nut to be part of that team if it turns out true; potentially revolutionary work on the absolute cutting edge of physics, and a high likelihood of a Nobel if you're one of the head honchos. Even if it isn't, anything they publish will get a million cites, which is a great thing for their academic standing.

[Siquo]

"Welp, I just completely invalidated my eight years of education. Great. Sure glad I put all that work in."

That's what you live for. A scientist that doesn't invalidate any of his teachings (or adds to it), is a bad scientist.
If we already knew everything, there would be no need for scientists.

[Leafsnail]

In any case "completely" is a pretty big overstatement, considering General Relativity still has great predictive powers in a lot of situations that actually come up (assuming you did study nothing but General Relativity for 8 years and still went into particle physics).

[Necro910]

I do believe they have just divided by zero.

AND WROTE IT DOWN.

[MonkeyHead]

..

I have to imagine being the scientists involved in this has to be the saddest thing ever

"Welp, I just completely invalidated my eight years of education. Great. Sure glad I put all that work in."

.

I passed up the opportunity for a placement at CERN a couple of years back for family reasons. Boy do I wish I hadnt.

[Starver]

I passed up the opportunity for a placement at CERN a couple of years back for family reasons.

Well, some people would think that all this means that there is still time to have already been there for several years, so relax and eventually you... will have been thinking how you... are yet to be previously ensconced in that position you desire.  If you see what I mean.

(I think we need some new verb-forms, people!)


I must admit, I've met some of the antimatter sub-team at a lecture they gave, and felt envious.  But I'd also moved out upon a different 'tech-tree branch' than any of the ones that would have led there, a while before, so can't realistically claim to have had the same opportunity as you.  (That statement is supposed to mean "hey, at least you had the chance", but I'm not sure if it's as consoling as I'd meant, so feel free to pretend I never said anything about it.  Truly, though, I've made so many 'meh' decisions along the way, or even just let things happen, I reckon you got the best deal...)

[MonkeyHead]

Not really, but yea... lol... twas only a short term opportunity, but it would have been nice to have a beter idea of the inner workings of the place, considering current events there. Met a lead LHC researcher a while back (Lyndon Evans?) - and chatting to him only really showed how advanced and specialized the work they carry out there is.

[Osmosis Jones]

I passed up the opportunity for a placement at CERN a couple of years back for family reasons. Boy do I wish I hadnt.

Damn man. 

[MetalSlimeHunt]

Subsiquent experiment shows troll neutrinos are indeed still faster than light.

[ChairmanPoo]

Time will tell. Sooner or later, time will tell

[MonkeyHead]

Subsiquent experiment shows troll neutrinos are indeed still faster than light.

Not quite - only one of the identified "errors" has been eliminated by the smaller packets. There are stil question marks over recording the time of transit for the neutrinos - more specifically, what time they leave, and what time they arrive, which smaller packets goes some way to solve (was this the neutrino which left...? , but not fully.