Those Faster-Than-Light Neutrino Measurements Were Probably Wrong, Again Proving Science’s Awesomeness

February 25, 2012, 3:39pm

First of all, there’s really no way measurements taken last year that appeared to show neutrinos going faster than light were right. Special relativity would be wrong in that case, and with it, like the entirety of how we view the universe would be incorrect and all of the god knows how many observations and experiments proving special relativity and everything that follows from it would be boned too. But while we don’t immediately toss out a century’s worth of good science for an anomalous measurement, we don’t ignore it either. This is why science is awesome and why it’s better than anything else ever in understanding the universe: it questions itself, is constantly doubting itself. A paper published in a good journal is first brutalized by other scientists in the peer-review process, results are replicated (or not), holes are probed. Science does this constantly; results are disproved constantly. Only after a process of correction and validation rigorous enough to make the brightest theologian insane, does something become “true.” Even then, other scientists will spend their careers trying to prove its untruth, even for something like special relativity (or gravity!).

In any case, looks like the neutrino result was the result of a faulty fiber optic connection. But you know what? Science is still gonna test it! Other labs are still going to try and replicate the initial relativity-violating result to ensure that it’s wrong. Testing its wrongness! I love science—and math—because I love answers, not just Big Answers like Are there other universes? but true answers, even true answers that most people don’t even care about. A true answer about anything is better than any other thing.