Scientists admit: speed of light not broken

It was hard to miss the news months ago that the CERN lab near Geneva claimed they had broken the speed of light. Einstein's theory of special relativity was apparently defunked.

Well until the news hit that it may have been a ‘connection' problem. A source close to the experiment spoke to the US journal Science Insider that “A bad connection between a GPS unit and a computer may be to blame.”

Scientists originally claimed that neutrinos arrived 60 nanoseconds earlier than the 2.3 milliseconds taken by light. Science Insider reported however “the 60 nanoseconds discrepancy appears to come from a bad connection between a fiber optic cable that connects to the GPS receiver used to correct the timing of the neutrinos' flight and an electronic card in a computer. After tightening the connection and then measuring the time it takes data to travel the length of the fiber, researchers found that the data arrive 60 nanoseconds earlier than assumed.

Since this time is subtracted from the overall time of flight, it appears to explain the early arrival of the neutrinos. New data, however, will be needed to confirm this hypothesis.”

Kitguru says: Einstein's theory clearly still stands which may be a relief to many scientists who were still pondering the ramifications of the findings at CERN.

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