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CERN press release regarding neutrino experiment

press.web.cern.ch

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Re: CERN press release regarding neutrino experiment

#2

Post by saulrh »

This press release is a perfect example of how to write a press release for a high-profile, possibly groundbreaking discovery. Understated, but still properly summarizes the importance of the result, and above all doesn't make any hysterical claims. Instead, it just presents the discovery, cites the paper, gives some background, grabs quotes from the scientists to show the reasoning behind their actions, and leaves it at that. Beautiful.

Re: CERN press release regarding neutrino experiment

#3

Post by arethuza »

Although it is CERN that is getting most of the attention the lab receiving the neutrinos is pretty impressive - 1400m underground:

"three large experimental halls, each about 100 m long, 20 m wide and 18 m high and service tunnels, for a total volume of about 180,000 cubic metres"

http://www.lngs.infn.it/home.htm

Re: CERN press release regarding neutrino experiment

#6

Post by simplegeek »

Guys, I'm sorry I missed this recent news but I've a question that I hope some people can answer for me. So does this mean that Einstein's theory might not hold? Do we see any well-established theories break as result of this? I'm totally naive about this but curious so any answers will be appreciated.

Re: CERN press release regarding neutrino experiment

#7

Post by orblivion »

simplegeek wrote: post #6

Guys, I'm sorry I missed this recent news but I've a question that I hope some people can answer for me. So does this mean that Einstein's theory might not hold? Do we see any well-established theories break as result of this? I'm totally naive about this but curious so any answers will be appreciated.

I'm not the best to answer this, but I'll briefly say that if Einstein's theories don't hold, it will be in the same sense that Newton's theories didn't hold post-Einstein. Newton's theories still apply, for all practical purposes, to all every-day life situations, and Einstein's theories will still apply, for all practical purposes, to every fringe case seen so far ("every-day" nuclear physics, etc) until this experiment. Einstein's theories will just break down in even more fringe situations, which we would have to start to understand the nature of now.

Re: CERN press release regarding neutrino experiment

#8

Post by docgnome »

simplegeek wrote: post #6

Guys, I'm sorry I missed this recent news but I've a question that I hope some people can answer for me. So does this mean that Einstein's theory might not hold? Do we see any well-established theories break as result of this? I'm totally naive about this but curious so any answers will be appreciated.

To be honest, it's most likely someone making a mistake or equipment failure or something. We'll just have to wait and see if someone else can replicate it.

Re: CERN press release regarding neutrino experiment

#10

Post by codehalo »

docgnome wrote: post #8
simplegeek wrote: post #6

Guys, I'm sorry I missed this recent news but I've a question that I hope some people can answer for me. So does this mean that Einstein's theory might not hold? Do we see any well-established theories break as result of this? I'm totally naive about this but curious so any answers will be appreciated.

To be honest, it's most likely someone making a mistake or equipment failure or something. We'll just have to wait and see if someone else can replicate it.

Actually, this may be a good thing if the experiments turn out to be correct. There has been a lot of difficulty integrating gravity into the current theories to get a Grand Unified Theory/TOE. Maybe this will make physicists think about other novel ideas.
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