New neutrino test shows Einstein was probably right

It appears that Albert Einstein was probably right when he posited that nothing in the universe can travel faster than the speed of light in a vacuum. According to a press release from the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), the results of a September experiment, which found that neutrinos could breach the most well-known principle of Einstein’s special theory of relativity, have not been confirmed in a retest by a new group of scientists operating out of the same laboratory. The new experiment, called the ICARUS experiment, which was conducted at the Italian Gran Sasso laboratory, recorded a new time for the speed of neutrinos from CERN to Gran Sasso. The scientists use the same short pulsed beam from September’s experiment to conduct the ICARUS experiment. CERN’s press release states that the new measurement “is at odds with the initial measurement reported by OPERA last September.” “The evidence is beginning to point towards the OPERA result being an artefact of the measurement,” said CERN Research Director Sergio Bertolucci, in a press release, adding that “it’s important to be rigorous, and the Gran Sasso experiments, BOREXINO, ICARUS, LVD and OPERA will be making new measurements with pulsed beams from CERN in May to give us the final verdict.” In order to shield the OPERA team from too much negative criticism for taking on Einstein’s special theory of relativity without any success, Mr. Bertolucci defended the OPERA team’s experimental method. “Whatever the result, the OPERA experiment has behaved with perfect scientific integrity in opening their measurement to broad scrutiny, and inviting independent measurements. This is how science works,” Mr. Bertolucci professed. Carlo Rubbia, a Nobel Prize winner and a spokesperson for the ICARUS experiment, also commented on the latest neutrinos speed test. “The ICARUS experiment has provided an important cross check of the anomalous result reports from OPERA last year,” said Mr. Rubbia, in a press release. “ICARUS measures the neutrino’s velocity to be no faster than the speed of light. These are difficult and sensitive measurements to make and they underline the importance of the scientific process,” he added. Mr. Rubbia also shed some light on how the ICARUS experiment was conducted: “The ICARUS Liquid Argon Time Projection Chamber is a novel detector which allows an accurate reconstruction of the neutrino interactions comparable with the old bubble chambers with fully electronics acquisition systems. The fast associated scintillation pulse provides the precise timing of each event, and has been exploited for the neutrino time-of-flight measurement. This technique is now recognized world wide as the most appropriate for future large volume neutrino detectors.” According to the South Pole Neutrino Observatory at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, “neutrinos are subatomic particles produced by the decay of radioactive elements and are elementary particles that lack an electrical charge.” Even if neutrinos are not able to travel faster than the speed of light, the subatomic particles harbor other interesting abilities. A recent experiment by researchers at the University of Rochester and North Carolina State University found that neutrinos can communicate messages through solid materials. The scientists beamed neutrinos through approximately 780 feet of stone, spelling out the word “neutrinos” on the other side. The research team believes that neutrino communication technology could have numerous uses in the not-so-distant future. Neutrinos are nearly massless and they have a neutral electric charge. This means that neutrinos are not subject to magnetic attractions and are not significantly altered by gravity, which allows them to move through solids and liquids without being impeded. While neutrinos may not be able to move faster than the speed of light, their construction certainly has significant implications for the future of space and underwater communications.