Faster-than-light neutrinos
The faster-than-light neutrinos found at CERN last year were always very likely to be some subtle experimental error, and the odds of this seem to have gone up. Professor Matt Strassler, who actually knows what he is talking about, has some blog posts on the topic, including a very nice graphic that will be familiar to statistics teachers. The initial news reports last week said the FTL problem had gone away, but that appears not to be true. What we’re waiting to find out is both what the estimated speed is, and how much uncertainty there is. It could still be that the results are inconsistent with relativity, and that some other explanation is needed. Or it could be that the uncertainty is larger than the 60 nanosecond timing anomaly, so the results are consistent with relativity. Or, the experiment could have been sufficiently messed up not to tell us anything. In any case, the real test will come when someone repeats the experiment.
(via: Chad Orzel)
Thomas Lumley (@tslumley) is Professor of Biostatistics at the University of Auckland. His research interests include semiparametric models, survey sampling, statistical computing, foundations of statistics, and whatever methodological problems his medical collaborators come up with. He also blogs at Biased and Inefficient See all posts by Thomas Lumley »