A controversy appeared a few months ago: scientists claimed they observed neutrinos traveling at faster-than-light speeds. This result was then highly debated, as it apparently violates Einstein’s special relativity, which says that nothing can move faster than light.
Among the ones questioning these results (that is to say almost everybody…), a failure of the GPS was often considered a possibility. It now seems that there is indeed a problem with it… According to ScienceInsider, the culprit may be a loose cable connecting the GPS to a computer.
Soon after this announcement yesterday, James Gillies, a spokesman for CERN, confirmed there were now doubts about the reliability of the results of the OPERA experiment.
In order to confirm the potential (and very probable) error, new measurements need to be performed.
Physicists of the OPERA experiment, who published these results, claimed they had rechecked and recontrolled everything over several months before anything was made public. Another test last November seemed to confirm their measurements.
Gillies finally added that a full statement will be issued tomorrow.
Special relativity is probably one of the most tested theories today, and it never failed. Also, it is almost certain that the results of the OPERA experiment are flawed. In the end, it looks like these results are just hanging by a “cable”…
