Those pesky neutrinos, they sure did cause a kerfuffle. The scientific community held its collective breath when research published by CERN suggested that the little guys had been caught traveling at an Einstein-defying 3.7 miles per second faster than light. Naturally there was a mixture of doubt and excited disbelief, but everything needed to be triple checked before any paradigms could meet any windows. And alas, it was all to unravel once flaws were identified. CERN has finally admitted faulty kit was to blame, with it's research director Sergio Bertolucci conceding "A coherent picture has emerged with both previous and new data pointing to a neutrino velocity consistent with the speed of light." The final chapter in this story took place at the International Conference on Neutrino Physics and Astrophysics in Kyoto today, with Bertolucci also commenting that, at the very least, the story captured the public imagination, pointing out that "An unexpected result was put up for scrutiny, thoroughly investigated and resolved in part thanks to collaboration between normally competing experiments. That's how science moves forward."

[Image credit: Getty Images]

CERN admits faulty kit to blame for speedy neutrinos, says it's all relative originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 08 Jun 2012 09:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.