Hi folks,
Given the interest of this blog in all things CERN, here’s my take on the recent OPERA/CGNS beam findings — where neutrinos were measured as travelling faster than light (FTL). My article is published on Universe Today — a moderated science blog.
Like LHC-will-destroy-the-Earth theories, the FTL finding is probably a load of old bollocks since it conflicts with core principles of modern physics - but the science team has provided a detailed paper with all their data, assumptions and calculations available for public scrutiny and comment - to enable everyone to get to the bottom of the problem. Very professional and appropriate practice — they are CERN scientists after all.
I hope this may be of interest.
Steve Nerlich (Space Settlement Board member and death-by-LHC skeptic)
As to your “danger-resilience” which I admire, I just replied on your other post.
Here you enter the terrain of CERN’s brave assault on the best-tested physical constant ever. The one which, if violated, will allow one to work miracles like changing the past (including preventing your own existence).
So “very good data indeed” would be needed for this largest feat ever of history. Where is the weakest point in CERN’s coming out?
It is the statistics, of course: To obtain a significant difference between two broad clouds of points between which you cannot make pair evaluations and whose mean values differ only by one part in 40 million, requires an awfully strong statistical test. This problem is not even seen by the authors.
There are other weaknesses pointed out by Dr. Walter L. Wagner, to which I subscribe. But the above argument appears to be the easiest to dismantle if possible. There are many specialists for this kind of mathematics around, not just in physics. A fairly large sector of the public thus can help CERN here.
After all, by changing the past the LHC-danger could be eliminated. Long live CERN!