Posted by: procyon
« on: February 23, 2012, 02:00:18 AM »Quote
Further complicating matters, even the OPERA scientists couldn't yet explain why the neutrinos clocked in as fast as they did. Now, according to Science Insider, sources familiar with the OPERA experiment say a fiber optic cable connecting a GPS receiver and an electronic card in one of the lab computers was discovered to be loose. (The GPS was used to synchronize the start and arrival times of the neutrinos).
Tightening the connection changed the time it took for data to travel the length of the fiber by 60 nanoseconds. Because this data processing time was subtracted from the overall time-of-flight in the neutrino experiment, the correction may explain the seemingly early arrival of the neutrinos. To confirm this hypothesis, the OPERA team will have to repeat their experiment with the fiber optic cable secured.
When OPERA announced their results in September, the physicist and TV presenter Jim Al-Khalili of the University of Surrey voiced the incredulity of many in his field when he said that if the results "prove to be correct and neutrinos have broken the speed of light, I will eat my boxer shorts on live TV." It looks as if he, for one, has been spared that level of embarrassment.