Bad Astronomer Phil Plait's take on this:
Faster-than-light travel discovered? Slow down, folks
My own view is pretty similar to what has been expressed by others, inasmuch that, in science, one anomalous result becomes the focus of further research instead of the conclusion. Whatever remains afterwards will then be assessed on its own merits. Experimental error is obviously going to be part of the investigation, and as Phil Plait puts it in the above article:
Whichever way the evidence leads, the fundy preachers will think they have a bit more ammunition to use against the demon god of 'Scientism'. If the new results are right, then Einstein and his colleagues were wrong and you can't trust anything those scientists say. If wrong, then clearly science has been proved wrong and you can't trust anything those scientists say.
Not that I personally give a neutrino's toss what a bunch of shitheads think as long as they keep it to themselves, but it will surely mean a whole new pile of what I propose to coin 'fundiarrhoea' to have to clean up again and again.
Faster-than-light travel discovered? Slow down, folks
My own view is pretty similar to what has been expressed by others, inasmuch that, in science, one anomalous result becomes the focus of further research instead of the conclusion. Whatever remains afterwards will then be assessed on its own merits. Experimental error is obviously going to be part of the investigation, and as Phil Plait puts it in the above article:
The Bad Astronomer Wrote:Also, as pointed out in a Science Magazine article, knowing the exact moment the neutrinos are created isn’t easy either. Mind you, 60 nanoseconds is 0.00000006 seconds, so they need a pretty good clock here. That page also says they used GPS to determine the distance, which could be off a bit.
Whichever way the evidence leads, the fundy preachers will think they have a bit more ammunition to use against the demon god of 'Scientism'. If the new results are right, then Einstein and his colleagues were wrong and you can't trust anything those scientists say. If wrong, then clearly science has been proved wrong and you can't trust anything those scientists say.
Not that I personally give a neutrino's toss what a bunch of shitheads think as long as they keep it to themselves, but it will surely mean a whole new pile of what I propose to coin 'fundiarrhoea' to have to clean up again and again.
At the age of five, Skagra decided emphatically that God did not exist. This revelation tends to make most people in the universe who have it react in one of two ways - with relief or with despair. Only Skagra responded to it by thinking, 'Wait a second. That means there's a situation vacant.'
